Nicola Sturgeon has said that should the UK do the ‘unthinkable’
and vote to leave the European Union, Scotland would be better off leaving our
300-year union and becoming an ‘independent’ EU member. Quite apart from the
oxymoronic nature of that statement – swapping one level of dependency for
another, this would make Scotland a foreign power against which a border would
need to be erected and enforced. Hadrian was right.
But, on the good side, a significant proportion of those
of us in England who would be rid of the EU’s unhelpful restraint on freedom
and development, would be equally delighted to see the back of a country whose
denizens have long hated us while taking every penny they could wring out of
us. It has been suggested that both the Welsh and the Scots, if the UK was
divided thus for the referendum, would overwhelmingly vote to stay in. One has
to ask why, given that both populations have been allowed for years to be fiercely
nationalistic even in their socialism, while the English don’t even have their
own anthem, let alone their own parliament.
Bring it on, I say. No, bring it – the fuck – on. I grew
up English. By the time I hit my late teens I had to learn to say British and
indeed, when I finally got a real passport (a blue one, of course) it told the
world I was a Brit. Well, I want independence from Britain, too. I want to be
English again and no longer have to care for the poor and under-nourished of
other nations. I say ‘care’, like I ever did and I say ‘under-nourished’
because for all of my life as a 'British' man I’ve had to listen to the constant
demands from more stridently nationalistically proud folk holding out begging
bowls and demanding that English taxpayers give ever more.
So, here’s a plan. Release Wales from its status as a
mere principality and let it self-rule entirely. Let the Scots, likewise, be
free to roam ‘aboot’ their glens and bonnie braes and let them both be entirely
sovereign nations, free to sell their sovereignty for the Euro-shilling. Allow all
Scots and Welsh and Northern Irish who wish to leave the EU reside in England
and naturalise as English, then get those borders rebuilt; Hadrian’s Wall to be
relocated to the current border, Offa’s Dyke to be extended and fortified the
full distance. (There’s already a handy proper border between Wales and Scotland
and Ireland anyway). THEN hold the referendum.
If we can’t get British independence from the EU, let’s
put all our efforts into establishing English independence. In effect, we can
start all over again. Why not? As individuals most of us will suffer changes of
circumstance, both good and bad, in our lives, which we take advantage of or rise
above. Is there any reason why we can’t do that as a country? Forget the
European Union, forget any union. Vote for independence, vote to leave. “Cry God
for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
