What now, after the Scotland NO vote?

SWPE firmly believes in the sanctity of National Sovereignty.  We oppose all forms of Imperialism and see the smallest viable Nation State as the best for the people.  To this end, we supported the Scottish Independence movement which promised to end the 300 year historical mistake which is called the United Kingdom.

The Independence Referendum was an opportunity for the peoples of Scotland and England to reach a new understanding as equals in free sovereign nations.  The anti-Independence propaganda was focused upon the personality of the SNP's Alex Salmond, but also pandered to the financial insecurities of the people.  We were appalled by the fear mongering of the UK nationalists, who argued that a free Scotland would be one in which the elderly people would not get their pensions and would be impoverished due to having to create a new currency (a nonsense argument which nevertheless intimidated many voters).  

The UK unity campaign only succeeded by offering unrealistic bribes of greater devolution if Scotland would remain under the UK yoke, backed by terrifying the electorate with imagery of a post-UK Scotland being a land of poverty and insecurity, as well as by suggesting that without London, Scotland would be swamped by mass immigration.  Why immigrants would seek to cross allegedly affluent England to live in poverty stricken Scotland, was not explained!

But for all this, the reality is that Scotland and England remain locked in the same prison which was forged for them by the Ruling Class in 1707.  Unlike the Act of Union, the continuing Union of 2014 has the approval of the electorate of the north of the UK, even if the approval of the rest is just assumed rather than verified by a popular vote.  The referendum to end or continue the UK was only held in Scotland, whereas there are three countries in the UK, plus the province of Northern Ireland.  For those of voting age in an area with a total of Seven Million people to have the say on the future of a group of countries totaling Seventy Million people, is clearly undemocratic.  Why were 90% of the people disenfranchised?  Possibly because the people of England could not be expected to support the Union, the people of Wales would most likely have wished to break away as well.  Northern Ireland is a more complex area, but would they too have wished to break from the UK (whether to unite with Ireland or to become a free Sovereign nation)?  All that is certain is that we were not allowed to have our say and our cousins in Scotland were coerced into voting for the status quo.

SWPE would have preferred for Scotland to regain full independence, but we have to accept that this did not happen.  Where does this leave us?  We hold to our conviction that a country of Seventy Million people is too large a unit to function in the manner which best suits the well being of the people.  We are federalists.  We support a return to the older nations which came before the creation of England, to a rebirth of Wessex, Mercia etc.  The Scottish NO vote offers the opportunity to join with our cousins in Wales and Scotland to strive for a federation of the British Isles which would end manufactured border disputes by allowing the people of each micro nation to have full control over their own affairs.  

We reject the narrow nationalism of those who pit Anglo-Saxons against Celts.  The UK has seen massive internal movement and mixing which makes the people of every corner of the British mainland and near islands united by blood.  One positive outcome of the Scottish referendum is the affirmation by many Scots of the bonds of kinship shared across the national frontiers.  SWPE does not oppose the single UK State due to any sympathy with outrageous hostility from some English, some Welsh, some Scots and some Irish to those outside their localities.  We support a return to smaller nations because we support the right of the people to rule over themselves, which is only achievable in smaller units of population.

SWPE recognises the cultural ties which unite the various peoples of England and set us apart from the peoples of Scotland and from the peoples of Wales.  We propose a federation of the English nations within a federation of the British nations.  The outcome of the dishonest Independence referendum is that the peoples of Great Britain must reassess our bonds and must take this opportunity to walk away from mutually destructive hatred of Sassenachs, Jocks, Taffies, Paddies, Woollybacks etc and cherish our familial ties.  We need to return to a healthy relationship with our cousins in different parts of the Isles, which enjoys jovial stereotyping but does not tolerate irrational hatred. 

On some levels the Referendum result is an opportunity lost, but in others it is new opportunities gained.  The desire for devolution in the North and West must be used to fuel demand for devolution to and in England as well.  The Ruling Class showed their despotism and disdain in the way they handled the UK dissolution vote (or lack of one!)  We must capitalise on this mistake and push for a new era of freedom in which the Ruling Class will have no place.  The money power had to bribe and intimidate to get its way. They had to deny 90% of the people a say.  They have no moral authority and can only rule by coercion.  The biggest loser in the Referendum was the Ruling Power.  The illegitimate elite is weakened and now it is time to kick this crippled scourge hard.