The movie Braveheart showed Scotland's fight for independence.
The British national government has opened formal negotiations with Scotland to set a date for an independence referendum that could tear modern Britain.
Scotland won the right to a “devolved” Parliament in the late 1990s and has sweeping powers over, for example, its judicial system and government spending. Resentment of the British that grew during the Thatcher years intensified during the Iraq War, and the election of conservative Prime Minister David Cameron pushed the Scottish National Party into surprise control of the regional Parliament last year.
Full independence would give the SNP the authority to fulfill a wide array of pledges, including expelling the British nuclear fleet from Scottish waters, withdrawing from NATO and unwinding Scottish regiments from Britain’s military forces overseas. It would also give politicians in Edinburgh the freedom to vote separately from — and perhaps counter to — Britain in world bodies such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.
It also sets up a possible fight between Scotland and Great Britain over control of the North Sea oil.
David Cameron
Fearing a diminished voice in global affairs and an irreparable split in modern Britain, PM Cameron this month launched his own battle to win the hearts and minds of the Scots. “I believe that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are stronger together than they would ever be apart,” Cameron declared here this month in a landmark speech for British unity. “Something very special is in danger. The danger comes from the determination of the Scottish National Party to remove Scotland from our shared home.”
Alex Salmond
His fiercest foe: Alex Salmond, Scotland’s deft political Braveheart and chief of the SNP. The party’s impressive track record in government and its efforts to protect the Gaelic language and teach the battles of Scottish history in schools have touched a nerve in a voting base physically distant and culturally apart from London, the British capital that sits geographically closer to Amsterdam and Brussels than Edinburgh.
In a move that could maximize the emotional appeal of independence, the SNP is pushing for a vote in 2014 — the 700th anniversary of the legendary Battle of Bannockburn that saw the English Army famously routed in the First War of Scottish Independence. London, meanwhile, is pressing for a ballot as early as next year to settle the issue once and for all.
Though polling in the past has shown core support for independence at about 30 percent, the most recent surveys indicate a race that is too close to call. Two polls done last month surprisingly show more English than Scottish favor independence for Scotland, reports the UK Daily Mail. One compromise being floated by London could cede more autonomy to the Scots in areas such as taxation, though a concrete offer would be made only if a referendum on independence fails.
Even if Scotland wins independence, it would still have strong ties to the UK. The country would still keep Queen Elizabeth II as its constitutional monarch, and continue to use the British pound for its currency.
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Scotland is scum like Ireland. England should invade and roll over them like a steamroller.
Rue Britannia! Brittania Rules the Waves!!!!