Barriers in the Sea

I find it strange that the media are discussing the idea of a customs barrier in the Irish Sea as though it was something new and completely unprecedented. Our partner in the 1707 Union, the Parliament of England, has operated a customs barrier in the North Sea and the North Atlantic for many years. I am referring to the customs barrier that separates Scotland from an area known as the United Kingdom Continental Shelf.

Every worker or piece of equipment that makes the journey from Scotland to an oilfield installation off our coast, crosses this customs barrier at the 12-mile-limit. Workers carry passports and equipment clears customs as it leaves (or enters) Scotland.

Our partner in union traded away the “expendable” fishing grounds but they are keen to retain control over the oilfields. Their misuse of the term ‘United Kingdom’ has become so routine that it is perceived as being an ancient usage. Yet it has only become fashionable in the past half-century. The name of the 1707 Union as a federal state was and is Great Britain. It is a state composed of two nations and the Duchy of Cornwall. Wales was incorporated into England by military conquest a long time ago.

England’s attempts to subdue and incorporate the entire island of Ireland (Lesser Britain to geographers) have proved to be a deferred success. These imperial adventures gave rise to the 1801 Union and the name of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This was abbreviated to ‘Great Britain’ or ‘Britain’ until the 1970s. The 1801 Union was a fraud entered into by the ‘Parliament of England’ and a colonial ‘Parliament of Ireland’. The treaty is drafted so as to be in clear breach of the 1707 Union which constituted a single Parliament of Great Britain.

The 1707 Union Flag

If we are to proceed towards a meaningful and stable independence we will need to know who we are negotiating with. We will need to know who the competent parties to the negotiations are. We must try to set out our stall so as to make the terms and conditions that end the 1707 Union difficult for our former partner to wilfully ignore or imaginatively misrepresent.

If we stick to the two equal states model of the 1707 Union things will be complex enough. If we admit any little Englander fantasies such as the ‘Rest of the United Kingdom’ we could open the door to a Welsh solution. The Old English word ‘wales’ means ‘foreigner’. If Scotland shoulders an equitable and agreed proportion of the debts of Great Britain we would be taking a first shaky step towards a more dignified and adult future.

If Scotland takes on a fair share of Great Britain’s debts and liabilities we underline our moral and legal claim on the assets and equity of Great Britain. This seems to me to be essential if we truly aspire to take on the tricky business of recovering from the Darien Disaster. By claiming stewardship of the Parthenon Stones, The Malvinas, Gibraltar and Albania’s gold we would announce to the world that we are serious.

The European Union Flag in October 2019

It is to be hoped that the continuing state of England would see the wisdom in returning to us the Book of Deer, the Burghead Bull and the Cutty Sark. However that would be up to them. If they really wanted to make a pacific gesture there are Berwick and Cumberland to consider. They might offer to take the old nuclear submarines away from Rosyth; but I’m not holding my breath about that.

Another approach to our resumption of all the outward trappings of sovereignty would be to start at the top. If we revoked the 1603 Union of the Crowns the constitutional muddy water becomes much clearer. We could then lay claim to the Koh-i-Noor diamonds. The fake coronation stone would, of course, be returned to us under a treaty obligation from auld lang syne. If our former partner was being level-headed and well-intentioned they might also return the Bishop’s Chair that was stolen from Scone Palace. But I’m not holding my breath about that.