How powerful is England in influencing policies in the UK?
For those who dont know UK comprises of 4 countries namely: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Scotland was an independent kingdom through the Middle Ages, and fought wars to maintain its independence from England. The two kingdoms were joined in personal union in 1603 when the Scottish King James VI became James I of England, and the two kingdoms united politically into one kingdom called Great Britain in 1707.
The pro-independence Scottish National Party first became the governing party of the devolved parliament in 2007, and it won an outright majority of seats at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election. This led to an agreement between the Scottish and UK governments to hold the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Voters were asked: “Should Scotland be an independent country?” 44.7 percent of voters answered “Yes” and 55.3 percent answered “No”, with a record voter turnout of 85 percent.
A second referendum on independence has been proposed, particularly since the UK voted to leave the European Union in a June 2016 referendum and since pro-independence parties increased their majority in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. In June 2022, Nicola Sturgeon proposed the date of 19 October 2023 for a new referendum on Scottish independence, subject to confirmation of its legality and constitutionality. Rishi Sunak implied that if he wins the Prime Minister race, he wont oblige to Scottish independence.
Question is why is England not accepting to let go of Scotland to be independent? Bado wanataka kunyanyasha Scotland vile walikuwa wananyanyasa Wales and Ireland?
Politically, Northern Ireland is not yet independent. The one that is independent is the Republic of Ireland. They were talks of Northern Ireland independence and then the Ireland reunification of both countries to form one country but as it is now, nothing concrete has been achieved so far.