Sir, – An impressive degree of wishful thinking is exhibited by Paul Gillespie (World View, December 24th) as he anticipates Scotland following most of Ireland out of the United Kingdom. Following this geo-political earthquake, he speculates that unionists in Ulster will opt for an Irish federation and an England, shorn of its seat on the UN Security Council, will conclude that its destiny lies with Europe and the resilient euro.
In former times, not a few Irish-American, people who knew even less about conditions in Ireland than Mr Gillespie perhaps does about Scotland, used to dream of England facing a mighty reckoning as a result of losing control of its Celtic dependencies. More charitably, it is possible to point also to Charles de Gaulle who in 1967 hoped to offend Anglo-Saxons everywhere by throwing his weight behind the break up of Canada and “a free Quebec”.
Here is another glimpse into the future which perhaps is no more far-fetched than Mr Gillespie’s.
England, freed of big-power duties and temptations, finally gets down to the task of showing its neighbours, trapped in the EU octopus, that it is still possible to build a small and self-sufficient country.
The process is assisted by the influx not just of the most capable Scots but of French and Irish citizens chafing under the EU’s corporate post-democracy. Meanwhile, the talented Alex Salmond looks for the kind of foreign sponsors to keep afloat his ageing post-industrial society of the kind that even Charles Haughey would have avoided when sponsoring the International Financial Services Centre 20 years ago. As a result, Scandinavian countries, Ireland and Britain create an informal alliance to try to prevent this political hell-raiser undermining the geo-political calm of north-west Europe.
Far-fetched? No more I think than Mr Gillespie’s miraculous vision of a Scotland that can somehow remain independent and solvent within a Franco-German run EU while still trading mainly with England and North America. – Yours, etc,