Last year was supposed to have been a celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union. In fact it was about dismantling it: the SNP is now running Holyrood; Plaid Cymru is in coalition with Labour in Cardiff; and the nationalist Sinn Féin shares power with the DUP in Stormont. It is the unionist nightmare come true: a separatist clean sweep.
Let’s just step back a minute and analyse that "separatist clean sweep" in last May's election results.
As a percentage of the total electorate who voted:
N.Ireland:
The Irish nationalist vote: 41.4%
Scotland:
The Scottish nationalists vote voted: 32.9%
Wales:
The Welsh nationalist vote: 22.4%
And that’s McWhirter’s definition of a "clean sweep"?
A "clean sweep" occurs when a team wins the Premiership, FA CUP, Champions League and whatever the League Cup is called nowadays.
A "clean sweep does not occur when a team loses more than half of its games.
Come back to me when any of those figures hit 51%.
9 comments:
Seeing as how Plaid Cymru, SNP nor Sinn Fein have ever been in power before, and all three are now in power, I think Clean Sweep is a pretty fair comment.
Clean sweep means much more than "winning the League Cup, Premiershiop etc" - it simply means winning everything/everywhere.
While it's clearly worth pointing out that both Plaid Cymru and Sinn Fein are junior partners, there's no denying that all three nationalist parties won power for the first time. (Of course, can't really be a clean sweep if you consider the English Democrats!)
Or how about a referendum in the UK to see who wants to keep Scotland or Northern Ireland or Wales? I hear the Cornish nationalist separatists are kicking up also.........
It doesn't even approach a clean sweep.
It doesn't even constitute a clean sweep of all the devolved regions of the United Kingdom.
Lets see how far all these separatist parties manage to take their independence projects during their term in Government.
guto
While it's clearly worth pointing out that both Plaid Cymru and Sinn Fein are junior partners, there's no denying that all three nationalist parties won power for the first time.
You could argue that SF have already been in power as an even more minor partner in the previous assembly.
"Won power"-well, the SNP are a minority govt, very good at PR, but 100% reliant on the Unionist parties if they actually want to achieve anything concrete.
Likewise with SF, but perhaps with NI's peculiar position (ie "cross-community" support required for every major decision) they are in an even more weak position.
You'll know more about Plaid Cymru's potential within the coalition than me, but it seems to an outsider that Labour is very much pulling the strings in that relationship.
So, for me, a "clean sweep" (and my worst nightmare) would have entailed each of the nationalist parties not only winning the popular vote, but also being able to dictate the running within the various assemblies. That hasn't happened, not by along way. I'll concede that they've,for the first time exploited their relative strength, to its full potential.
(Of course, can't really be a clean sweep if you consider the English Democrats!)
Yes;)
Or how about a referendum in the UK to see who wants to keep Scotland or Northern Ireland or Wales?
I would love to see a referendum in in the UK asking the electorate if they favour the break up of their nation.
We'd romp home, 60-70% would be in favour of keeping the status quo.
A proper referndum would actually bring out the issues and proper debates. As a celtic nationalist I'd be all for that.
The fact that support for seperation in England is growing is a direct result of the Brit Nats tactics in keeping celtic nationalism at bay. They tell us we're too poor to go it alone (without any evidence of that mind you).
Did no Brit Nat realise that telling us were too poor to go alone would just make the English angry because of the perceived imbalance in spending between the four countries?
http://amlwchmagor.blogspot.com/
The fact that support for seperation in England is growing is a direct result of the Brit Nats tactics in keeping celtic nationalism at bay.
I put it down principally to a very clever propaganda campaign by Salmond and our Mr Bean PM. The actual amount spent on NI, Scotland and Wales is no more probably than it was 5 years ago, the perception in England is that it is and that it is the English taxpayer who's funding the free prescription charges, university places etc.
And Brown's attempt to appeal to the average English person's "Britishness" was never going to work for one very simple reason...
The actual amount spent on NI, Scotland and Wales is no more probably than it was 5 years ago, the perception in England is that it is and that it is the English taxpayer who's funding the free prescription charges, university places etc.
Exactly, and the reason people think that is that the Brit Nats have, for years, told the Celts that they can't survive alone and depend on English handouts. Of course the English were going to get agitated if that's what they kept hearing.
Brown's britishness mess was always going to be a failure. 10 years ago it would have worked in England. But these days there's no Union Jack in sight at England games, it's the Cross of St george now and good for them.
Last year was not the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union (there were two - one by the English Parliament and one by the Scottish Parliament) but it was of the Treaty of Union (1707). If you insist on using the word 'separatist' or 'separatism' then it would make more sense if you were to use it in the correct context. 'Separatism', 'separatist' being the derivative, is defined in the 'Concise Oxford Dictionary' as -
'the advocacy or practice of separation of a group of people from a larger body on the basis of ethnicity, religion or gender.
None of these are applicable either to the Scottish National Party or any other Nationalist party that you mention.
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