I think not.

Perhaps the devolution of Scotland by way of its new Parliament for the Scots, and the set-up of both a Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly ( when it eventually gets doing its job and the MLA's start to earn their corn for a change) has sown the seed of the dissolution of the U.K.

Add to this the idea of splitting England into partitioned zones to meet the aims of the pernicious European Union and you have all the elements required to break the longstanding Union of Nations within the United Kingdom asunder.

In England we already have Westminster MP's from Scotland bearing up the vote to ensure passage of laws only relating to England, which cannot be fair to us.

One has only to read this Forum to easily detect that we here are not at ease even with ourselves. The feeling of being united as a people and population seems to have diminished rapidly..........

What do you think?

Have we ever been a "United Kingdom"? I seem to remember a Tory Government supported mainly by Southerners ruling over a Northern England and Scotland where Tory MPs were as rare as Rocking Horse *****. I resented it then and have considered myself a Northerner, akin to the Jocks, ever since.

Hmmm.... Some kind of Northern League perhaps....raise the country...march on the South....

Actually, the UK has proved to be remarkably resilient.

Less than two decades ago, a good case could have been made that the UK was on the verge of fragmentation into its constituent parts. At this time, support for the SNP was on the rise and the staus of Northern Ireland as an integral part of the UK was in serious doubt. The Welsh Nats, although no where near as successful in electoral terms as their Scots and irish counterparts, were also nevertheless becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Today, the situation is very different. The SNP, if anything, is in decline, thanks to the election victories of the Labour party (which has many Scots in high office, including the PM and Chancellor) and the creation of the Scottish Parliament which, contrary to the predictions of many, has not proven to be a conduit to independence.

Similarly, Sinn Feinn/IRA have (for now) effectively conceded that Northern Ireland will remain part of the UK. The Welsh Nats are also in decline. The defeat in a referendum of the proposition for a Northern Assembly effectively put paid to the idea of regional government in the UK any time soon, if ever.

So predictions of the imminent demise of the UK are proving to be wide of the mark.

revolt comrades and form the people's republic of yorkshire where yorkshire puds and mushy peas are always on the menu and where flat hats and pigeons are on every coat hook and at the bottom of every garden.
We could have the cream of the worlds sporting events mis managed by labour councils and go bust inside 10 years.
Or we could just stay in the UK and do the same under this labour government. (just with more asylum seekers)

At the moment Scotland and Wales are having their cake and eating it: they have their own parliament/assembly through which they pamper themselves with special deals on student fees and prescriptions etc whilst benefiting from additional subsidy from English taxpayers via the Westminster Parliament.
Other multi-nation states around Europe have broken up in recent years, eg the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. This frees people from having to express loyalty to an artificial state and thus their partriotism can be more genuine.
Given that the devolution genie has been let out of the bottle I think that the United Kingdom will dissolve in years to come. The major political parties have either a vested interest or a sentimental attachment to keeping it going for a while yet, however. A break-up does not imply animosity though; on the contrary, we could feel free to admire and value our differences even more.
Happy St George's Day! :thumbsup:

I don't think the UK is in danger of disunifying itself any time soon, but there is a danger that growing red tape from the EU may force some degree of Federalism on us, simply due to the agencies required to handle all that legislation! I used to be more federalist, but my opinion has changed as in fact this could lead to more problems than benefits. I know that in Germany and the US there are wide differences in education between regions and I'd rather that kind of policy was controlled nationally, thus enabling people equality of opportunity across the country.

Interestingly, the Cornish nationalist movement is still quite strong, and I think may get even stronger, as the locals are increasingly being forced out by weekenders and there is a lot of unemployment, which often fosters that type of politics. And today I was reading that technically, as a County Palatine, Lancashire is still independent of the Crown (Durham and Cheshire used to be, but are not now).

I dunno. Scotland seems to be steaming ahead on its own, look at their infrastructure investment compared to England?

I feel that the English regions will never happen, people are to anti-European. I cannot understand why people are so against it, considering the current local government crap and poor management, reflected in poor turnout at elections and lack of any civic pride anymore.

Personally, what I'd like to see is the creation of city-region goverment, a bit like the London set-up.

Sheffield city-region (already proposed) would encompass the Derbyshire LA's of Derbyshire Dales, NE Derbyshire, Chesterfield, Bolsover, Bassetlaw, and SY's Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster.

Charley
http://www.gmroads.co.uk

Sheffield city-region (already proposed) would encompass the Derbyshire LA's of Derbyshire Dales, NE Derbyshire, Chesterfield, Bolsover, Bassetlaw, and SY's Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster.

Charley
http://www.gmroads.co.uk

Wonder what folk in Chesterfield and Bolsover would make of being lumped in with Yorkshire? :o