Thank you, Scotland

By the blog author

The Scottish people today have done something powerfully humble and yet breathtakingly wise: by a five-to-four margin, they have rejected independence from England and the United Kingdom.

Scots are known for a fierce bravery in battle.  This is true in the historic wars with England and remained true in the nineteenth century wherein Scottish soldiers did more than their share to build and maintain the enormous British Empire, at its height a political institution in control of a quarter of the world’s people.  It was perhaps the closest the world has come to universal government and world peace.

The heroism of the Scottish during the Great War and the Second World War is simply indisputable.

Also unarguable is the contribution of Scotland to the fields of economics, engineering, literature and the arts.

Let me explain very briefly why I am glad that Scotland and the UK remain together.  The island of Great Britain is unique in the world.  It sits rather far to the northwest from the rest of Europe.  It is saved from a bitterly cold climate by the Gulf Current.  It is surrounded by smaller yet important islands.  This system and its people and its method of government provide an unbearable annoyance and irritation to the many ideologues of continental Europe.  Powerful and ambitious heads of state have repeatedly tried to cow and conquer the British isles, especially Napoleon and Hitler.  They failed.  No foreigner has succeeded in war on Great Britain since Magna Carta was signed 799 years ago.

There are some things quiet and silent and unnoticeable that the Scots and the English share – a suspicion of pomposity, a sense of humor about supposed political perfection, and a bone deep sense of fairness.  Twice in the twentieth century these peoples successfully fought off domination by monsters.  Although it is a frightful thought, such a defense may again become necessary in the 21^st or 22^nd century.  The Scots and the English are stronger and safer if they continue to respect each other and stay together.

Politically and militarily, it is unspeakably wise to remain a union.  Thank you, Scotland.