Subject: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/manchester-set-to-become-part-of-scotland-10250453.html
Trending in the news today was a petition seeking that the North of England should break away from the rest of the UK and join Scotland. Irrespective of the proportions of the overall local population that would actually support this move, as opposed to the findings of one poll in one paper, the immediate context for this is the wake of the Conservative general election victory and the fact that Manchester is one of the British "Left's" most steadfast strongholds.
Of course the irony is, the SNP originated as a nationalist party, not a socialist party; and there is probably no single answer over which of those aspects is more fundamental to it even now. It seems clear to me that what the poll indicates is not a deep desire in Manchester and other places to free themselves from foreign tyrants, but reflects a deep problem in the traditional regionalisation of British politics, of late more than ever threatening to fundamentally destabilise the country. What is lacking in England and Great Britain is a real "left-wing" party, a credible alternative, to Labour. Meanwhile the dominant discourse in the currently leaderless Labour Party in England seems to be that it needs to be more pro-business, to become more Blairite and even less left-wing.
I think that the real impetus behind Scotland's resurgent separatist movement is not nationalism, but a desire to live in a more socialist country. The SNP's momentum in its independence campaign last year is best explained as stemming from its equation of the Union with Conservative rule imposed from England against the wishes of Scotland; and the party's resounding vindication in the general election earlier this month should certainly be read in that light. They were decidedly not campaigning on an independence platform (although perhaps we might say they were campaigning in the context of an independence platform). But the exploitation of socialist malcontent at the Conservative government by Scottish nationalists in order to break up the country is, I think, disingenuous; because, obviously, this malcontent is far from restricted to Scotland. I think it is probably not too much exaggeration to say that in this country, whether England or Britain, opinions on the Conservatives are largely binary: they are generally either loved or hated, with relatively little middle ground - although it was undoubtedly that middle ground that decided the election.
I do find it somewhat frustrating that people find cutting themselves off from a problem such an attractive solution. I consider it no solution at all; it does not make the problem go away, it is tantamount to giving up the fight. I accept that that may be a reasonable solution; an independent Scotland might potentially have managed to be quite a lot of the utopia the SNP claimed and hoped and planned that it could, and its example may indeed even have been a positive influence and inspiration for would-be leftist parties in the rUK. I personally have come to consider the island of Britain a much more natural idea of a country: I do not wish to go back to medieval-era borders, and having studied post-Roman and early medieval history and archaeology and the origins of the different national identities of Britain makes it all seem very artificial. To me, separatism in this context, even for the most progressive reasons, seems backwards: British sounds much more modern than English, Scottish or Welsh (even though incidentally it derives from one of the earliest attested ethnonyms of the island). It sounds like an island that used to be many different nation-states, that has put historical national grievances aside and is working to be something newer, something progressive and forward-looking.
Britain needs a new, credible, populist Left to either replace or thoroughly rewrite Labour to provide a real alternative for a populace long starved of real functioning modern socialism south of the Tweed. It probably shouldn't be unionist and probably should work with the SNP; but whatever you think of Leftist politics, it probably would put the union on a much firmer footing for the future.
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