At one point, the Romans managed to conquer and rule most of western Europe, along with much of the eastern Mediterranean.
They made it as far north as the southern border of Caledonia, which they attempted to conquer more than once. Ultimately, though, the greatest empire in European history gave up on assimilating any part of Scotland, and went back to manning and reinforcing Hadrian’s Wall. This was widely regarded as a reasonable and prudent move.
In light of this anti-imperial history, there is a certain irony to be had in seeing how Scotland uniformly voted to remain in the European Union last weekend. Americans, see if you can pick out the Scottish-English border just by looking at the Brexit vote results:
Sort of hard to miss, isn’t it? The descendants of those northern tribes who once refused to join Europe are now refusing to leave. This has lead to more than a little soul-searching over the 2014 referendum in which Scotland opted not to leave the United Kingdom.
This just further hammers home how wrong I was to vote against Scottish independence. #EURefResults
— James MacDonald (@JimMacDonaldMMA) June 24, 2016
#Brexit vote brings fresh surge of support for Scottish independence https://t.co/vtUsLXmlbxhttps://t.co/0yLWWzFkWI
— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) June 26, 2016
Is Brexit the beginning of the End of Britain? https://t.co/woCS9yPh6g
— alexmassie (@alexmassie) June 28, 2016
Unless the economic situation of Britain rebounds in the next couple of years, it is difficult to think of any good reasons why Scotland would want to stay with the UK rather than the EU. Given the choice between Brussels and London, I would surely opt for the regime which respects national sovereignty while maintaining the largest common market for goods and labor.
As an American, I can watch all of these events with a certain detached amusement. It is not as if the spectre of seeing both the UK and the EU cracking up would plunge the world into a global recession, thereby all but ensuring a Trump victory in the fall. They will pull everything back together before then, right?
Right?!
