Should it come to pass that voters in Scotland vote to become independent, would the UK still be the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? Would it be the United Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland?
Thanks,
Rob
The UK will probably become The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Except For Those Drunk, Red-Headed, Caber-Flipping, Kilt-Wearing Bagpipe Suckers.
How about “the Untied Kingdom” ?
I don’t think there’s any real talk of changing it. As far as I can tell, in general those outside Scotland want Scottish independence to affect the rest of the UK as little as possible.
The United Kingdom, or for extra precision, the Rump UK
England.
Next question - will they change the flag to become a “Disunion Jack”?
(Logically, it would become a red “asterisk” on a white background. The blue field and the diagonal white diagonal are the cross of St. Andrew.)
Hmm. I thought I was being flippant, but of course, people have been discussing it, and some suggestions reflect my first thought - incorporate Wales into the flag while you’re at it:
You forgot the ‘rubbish at goalkeeping’ bit…
Frank Haffey.
Stuart Kennedy
I think they would keep the Union Jack. You could perhaps handwave away the blue with the observation that England football and cricket teams traditionally wear navy blue.
The UK could host a Peaches & Herb reunion, ushering in a Reunited Kingdom or R.K.
All I want to know is if they’d copy the Romans and put up a new wall up on the border. They could call it Cameron’s Wall.
Whether border checks will arise is a pretty pertinent question.
The UK’s only land border is with the Republic of Ireland. There are no border checks of any kind for travellers going in either direction. Assuming that an independent Scotland were in the EU, I can’t see border checks at the UK/Scottish border.
The English soccer, rugby union and rugby league teams all wear white, with red (soccer) and maroon (rugby union) as alternate strips. The English cricket team wears whites for test cricket (as do all test cricket teams) and red in one-day and T20 cricket (where white is forbidden to all teams).
Navy blue is in fact the sporting colour most commonly associated with Scotland, worn by the Scottish soccer, rugby union, rugby league, shinty and cricket (one-day and T20) teams.
The strongest locgic for retaining blue in the flag of the rump UK is simply that it makes a good contrast with both red and white, and so improves visibility and flag identification.
If an independent Scotland was in the EU, it would be part of the Schengen zone from which the UK and Ireland have an opt out which is not granted to new members. So yes there is a possibility that border checks are needed.
Isn’t Scotland being in the EU the potential problem? If Scotland doesn’t get to keep the UK’s opt-out, then it’s eventually supposed to join the Schengen Area.
I think Scotland would be in a fairly strong position to negotiate continuation of EU membership on the terms currently applicable to it as a constituent country of the UK. And in this regard in particular, doing so would seem to make eminent sense.
Not-so-United Kingdom.
“The union of the former UK countries of England and Wales and area called Northern Ireland for which no satisfactory designation exists”. Or “UFUKCEWANI” for short.