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The 300th anniversary of the union between Scotland and England will fall this year. I am the first to admit that my understanding of both the history and intricacies of the United Kingdom is appallingly limited- but I must admit that I never thought that my first trip to Scotland would see me wondering whether there would be a subsequent three hundred years of unity between England and their northerly neighbour. In 1707 there were allegations of bribery, corruption and (obvious) disenfranchisement after the noblemen in the Scottish Parliament agreed to the Union with the Kingdom of England. Nowadays the Scots are more represented than ever - they have had their own Scottish Parliament since 1998, they are still represented in the Parliament of Great Britain in London and for all intents and purposes the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will almost definitely be a Scot - yet if you believe media reports the desires of the Scottish population to assert their differences compared with England and leverage themselves into an “independent” Scotland seem very strong.

Underground Independence

Patrick Gatland
2007-03-08 18:14:21

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The 300th anniversary of the union between Scotland and England will fall this year. I am the first to admit that my understanding of both the history and intricacies of the United Kingdom is appallingly limited- but I must admit that I never thought that my first trip to Scotland would see me wondering whether there would be a subsequent three hundred years of unity between England and their northerly neighbour. In 1707 there were allegations of bribery, corruption and (obvious) disenfranchisement after the noblemen in the Scottish Parliament agreed to the Union with the Kingdom of England. Nowadays the Scots are more represented than ever - they have had their own Scottish Parliament since 1998, they are still represented in the Parliament of Great Britain in London and for all intents and purposes the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will almost definitely be a Scot - yet if you believe media reports the desires of the Scottish population to assert their differences compared with England and leverage themselves into an "independent" Scotland seem very strong.

Whether it's possible to gauge a population's desire for independence during a boozy weekend away is debatable. I am willing to bet it is not. However, after nearly getting into a fist fight with an annoying Scot in a bar on my first night in town over an issue he largely knew nothing about I've decided that it's fine for me to make broad sweeping statements about a country I have spent less that 2 full days in (I mean, honestly; that any foreigner can claim that he can pinpoint any Australian's hometown from their accent alone is a fallacy so stupid that it almost is worth getting into fisticuffs over the issue).

Edinburgh has an undeniable charm and history to it that gets to you even if you emerge, bleary-eyed, in the mid afternoon after a hard night's drinking and are struggling to fight off strong bouts of nausea. As Jill (the Swede), Steve (the Scot) and I made our way down ...