…because the mule is more likely to eventually concede the point.
Niall Ferguson, after explaining why Scottish independence will probably be (economically speaking) a poor life choice for Scotland*, wondered why the Scots seem to be thinking about doing it anyway. He wondered briefly; because the answer is, of course, that they’re Scots**:
Telling a Scot, “You can’t do this — if you do, terrible things will happen to you,” has been a losing negotiating strategy since time immemorial. If you went into a Glasgow pub tonight and said to the average Glaswegian, “If you down that beer, you’ll get your head kicked in,” he would react by draining his glass to the dregs and telling the barman, “Same again.”
Mind you, I’m Irish. We’ll do any damfool thing you want if there’s beer in it and maybe a band playing.
Moe Lane
*Short version: the EU doesn’t want them on the Euro and England won’t let them stay on the pound.
**My father’s mother was a MacMillan. Be grateful that I don’t use that excuse to (as Kim Newman once snarked in passing about people in my situation) dress in a kilt, quote Robbie Burns, and embrace every crass Scottish stereotype that there is.
“Damn Scots, they ruin Scotland!”
“Ef it’s no’ Sco’ish,it’s craahp!!”
Moe,
There are no crass stereotypes of Scots. Only vile canards passed by envious and perfidious English who wish they were Scots.
I have a strange desire to watch “So I Married an Ax Murder” again
Okay, I (that “I” was in big bold caps) am Irish. At least on my mother’s side.
Okay, Daddy’s side MIGHT have had some Scots in there somewhere.
But, NO. NO….. just English…. except for that Cherokee princess that is de rigueur.
One of my second son’s favorite memories is: the summer he studied in England (which he came back from smoking unfiltered cigs) when they took that bus trip to Edinburg on the city’s anniversary with fireworks in the sky on the same day that was his birthday.
Just got to love them all.
Asd a person of Scottish heritage, I am proud that the British ( actually, the English Empire) was built by bloody minded Scots that killed everyone in sight against them. I just wish that we got credit for it. But no, the English took all the credit that we bled for. If we finally get to cut “perfidious Albion” adrift, then I am all for it and will celebrte with the apropriate libatiation, Usiuge beatha.
Eh, it’s pretty hard for England to prevent Scotland from using the pound (they can do petty stuff like making hard to exchange Scottish Pounds for UKP in the UK, but that’s about it short of war), if the Scots don’t care about having a say in their monetary policy. Several countries use currency pegged to the dollar whether we like it or not.
It’s Scotland the Brave, not Scotland the Cowardly.
.
There’s a case to be made for the UK. But the politicians and the commentators aren’t making it. It involves nationalism, past glories, and other stuff that’s beneath them.
.
As it is, they’re making arguments that range from the frivolous (Scotland already mints their own currency. Removing the “UK” and pegging it to the English Pound? Not exactly difficult.) to the counterproductive (This will end the dole as we know it? SOLD!).
.
The main thing, I think is that one of the core tenets of the Progressive movement (and related philosophies) is that centralization is inherently more efficient, and the continuing upward path of History will force more and more centralization.
That a country could buck this supposed tide and decentralize is something they can’t quite wrap their brains around.