What If the United Kingdom Fell Apart?: Scotland’s Nationalist Government

How would a post-UK England connect to the remaining British Isles if the United Kingdom disintegrates? In several international institutions, England might claim or be saddled with the right of the political entity. Whether England can retain the UK’s permanent position on the UN Security Council will be a persistent problem. Arguments regarding the United Kingdom of Britain and North Ireland’s existence have reached new heights due to Scotland’s independence vote, Brexit, increasing English patriotism, and a London split between becoming a state capital and a global metropolis. While the UK’s demise is far from certain indeed, it may surprise its detractors and questions over the country’s economic future remain.

Scotland’s Nationalist Government

The Scottish National Party was established in 1934 when the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party merged. Disputes within the SNP erupted about whether to concentrate on politics or broader cultural goals. Deep schisms existed over the party’s links with other political groups, particularly the Labour Party. Devolved powers, or the formal decentralisation of authority to British regions, is accepted by Scotland’s Nationalist Government as a step toward Scottish independence. The party identifies itself to be conservative and left-of-centre in general. Its party politics are firmly anti-Conservative, its economic plans are liberal, and it is devoted to non-nuclear defence. 

These characteristics made it hard for Scotland’s Nationalist Government to set itself apart from the Labour Movement at times. The local branch is the fundamental organisational unit. The most influential organisations above this level are constituency organisations, which recommend candidates based on a nationally authorised list. The party’s annual meeting is nominally the primary decision-making body on the national scale. Still, in reality, the National Executive Committee (headed by the national coordinator) is the most powerful body. During yearly conferences, a National Council takes policy choices.

Democratic Unionist Party

Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party is a unionist political party. Ian Paisley co-founded the Democratic Unionist Party and headed it from 1971 to 2008. The Ulster Unionist Party usually contests for votes within Northern Ireland’s unionist Protestant population. 

After Paisley was re-elected to the European Parliament in 1984, the DUP obtained its greatest proportion of the vote (almost 34.1 per cent). Locally, the party’s support rapidly dropped after peaking at over 27 % in local government elections in 1981. The DUP sees itself as “conservative right in the context of becoming strong on the legislation” but “left on social policy” while consistently taking conservative stances on most aspects of the society. 

Its electorate comprises some profoundly religious organisations and encompasses rural regions in Northern Ireland and internal working-class neighbourhoods, reflecting the party’s chief’s conservatism and anti-Catholicism. The DUP is adamantly opposed to unification with Britain. The DUP has generally shunned all communication with the Irish government, considering territorial claims in the Irish constitution unconstitutional and dangerous to Protestants’ safety and religious freedom in the Republic of Ireland.

Johnson’s Lazy Libertarianism

Gary Johnson is a former Mexico governor who served two terms. During his governorship, he hit the headlines for his support for school choice, a tax standstill, actual reduction in government department budget, and marijuana decriminalisation. He will run for President of the United States on the Libertarianism Party ticket in 2012. Libertarianism is now undergoing a drastic makeover in the United States, and it has often become a viewpoint reserved for political outcasts. 

The contemporary Libertarian Party of the United States is successfully restoring its image. Johnson’s lazy libertarianism describes themselves as compassionate and practical, more interested in allowing people to live in harmony than criticising the poor. Traditional libertarianism is based on three absolute natural rights: the right to life, the right to be free, and the property right. No matter the stakes, the state cannot break fundamental rights without an individual’s permission which is why they seek a sharply restricted government. 

According to this viewpoint, a person must never be compelled to permit their own will by a third party. The present Libertarian Party’s rebranding of the classic stance has essentially emphasised rights and liberties while not mentioning more about ownership.

Conclusion

The demise of the United Kingdom and the re-emergence of England as a distinct state are neither assured nor likely to occur swiftly. If this happens, a slew of questions and concerns about what an English foreign strategy may look like will certainly enter political discussions. They would be handled when English policymakers and the general public better understand England’s governance, identity, duties, role in the world, and power. But we should be wary of believing that any such split will result in a humiliated, chastened, and sulking England seeking to separate itself from the rest of the world. England may acquire some of the UK’s international presence as a political entity.