So, Georgia appears to have been trounced by Russia. Little surprise - it's as equal a contest as if the Starship Enterprise was assailed by some people with sharp sticks and a nice line in supernatural incantations.
I do not propose to spend too much time apportioning blame, though whenever it's Russia v someone, "Russia" is generally the correct answer. Their attitude to anything remotely related to peace, prosperity, freedom is fucking despicable, and that they're continuing to sulk about losing the Cold War and their abominable Soviet empire is really quite contemptible.
No; what intrigued me was a place called South Ossetia, which I cannot recall every hearing of before.
It wants independence from pro-Western Georgia in order to cuddle up to Russia. You may consider that a curious wish, but sometimes it's better to be in cahoots with the nasty bastard in the playground instead of the nice, clever, pasty-faced speccy kid.
South Ossetia is smaller than Kent, and less populous than Lincoln. One cannot imagine Lincoln making a particularly compelling case for independence from the United Kingdom, nor can you envisage its people wishing it.
But how small CAN you create viable countries? Some in Scotland wish independence from the UK. Whether you can construct a functioning modern economy on deep friend Mars bars is open to debate, though I can almost hear the smug retort of Alex Salmond dribbling on about oil, as though there's a infinity quantity of the stuff.
Would Scotland work as a fully independent country, with its own economy, army, justice system and all the other trappings of statehood? My guess is that with a population of five million, several major cities and plenty of space, it could. Whether it should, given that it'd probably become a laboratory for fuckwitted socialists inflicting upon their countrymen a socialist utopia, with the 100% failure rate of such experiments, is another matter. But if they want to try, on balance I'd say good luck to them. At least it'd stop people recommending Rangers and Celtic join the Premier League.
But who else may not wish to be part of the UK? The Welsh? Smaller, less populous and with less of a nationalist tendency, they probably wouldn't want to. But COULD they? Could an independent Wales, with its spittle-flecked language and incessant rain, really conceivably break away from the English taxpayer and become independent? My guess is probably not.
Who next? Cornwall, population 500,000, is the next likely candidate. It's frankly impossible to imagine a country called Cornwall. But how about the kind of autonomy favoured by some as an intermediate option? Some examples are citied - Catalunya, the Basque country, and so on. Maybe. It seems to have some of the best aspects of both outcomes. No severing of the monies provided by the central government, but a vague sense of self-determination in enough trifling matters as to create the notion of "independence".
It's hard to look beyond there. Yorkshire has the strongest regional identity of the other counties, but it's very hard to believe that'd ever happen.
So will we ever see the final break-up of the UK? My guess is yes. Scotland seems to be on a course towards independence, and the English taxpayer doesn't seem too aghast at the prospect of no longer subsidising chippy Scots. Wales - less likely, but it already has a devolved Assembly and the transfer of powers to it is likely to increase rather than decrease throughout time.
The rest? Nah.
Of course, this could lead us onto the fascinating paradox between the increasing worldwide tendency towards smaller states and the fucking EU trying to meld one gigantic unwieldy superstate, but perhaps another time...
I do not propose to spend too much time apportioning blame, though whenever it's Russia v someone, "Russia" is generally the correct answer. Their attitude to anything remotely related to peace, prosperity, freedom is fucking despicable, and that they're continuing to sulk about losing the Cold War and their abominable Soviet empire is really quite contemptible.
No; what intrigued me was a place called South Ossetia, which I cannot recall every hearing of before.
It wants independence from pro-Western Georgia in order to cuddle up to Russia. You may consider that a curious wish, but sometimes it's better to be in cahoots with the nasty bastard in the playground instead of the nice, clever, pasty-faced speccy kid.
South Ossetia is smaller than Kent, and less populous than Lincoln. One cannot imagine Lincoln making a particularly compelling case for independence from the United Kingdom, nor can you envisage its people wishing it.
But how small CAN you create viable countries? Some in Scotland wish independence from the UK. Whether you can construct a functioning modern economy on deep friend Mars bars is open to debate, though I can almost hear the smug retort of Alex Salmond dribbling on about oil, as though there's a infinity quantity of the stuff.
Would Scotland work as a fully independent country, with its own economy, army, justice system and all the other trappings of statehood? My guess is that with a population of five million, several major cities and plenty of space, it could. Whether it should, given that it'd probably become a laboratory for fuckwitted socialists inflicting upon their countrymen a socialist utopia, with the 100% failure rate of such experiments, is another matter. But if they want to try, on balance I'd say good luck to them. At least it'd stop people recommending Rangers and Celtic join the Premier League.
But who else may not wish to be part of the UK? The Welsh? Smaller, less populous and with less of a nationalist tendency, they probably wouldn't want to. But COULD they? Could an independent Wales, with its spittle-flecked language and incessant rain, really conceivably break away from the English taxpayer and become independent? My guess is probably not.
Who next? Cornwall, population 500,000, is the next likely candidate. It's frankly impossible to imagine a country called Cornwall. But how about the kind of autonomy favoured by some as an intermediate option? Some examples are citied - Catalunya, the Basque country, and so on. Maybe. It seems to have some of the best aspects of both outcomes. No severing of the monies provided by the central government, but a vague sense of self-determination in enough trifling matters as to create the notion of "independence".
It's hard to look beyond there. Yorkshire has the strongest regional identity of the other counties, but it's very hard to believe that'd ever happen.
So will we ever see the final break-up of the UK? My guess is yes. Scotland seems to be on a course towards independence, and the English taxpayer doesn't seem too aghast at the prospect of no longer subsidising chippy Scots. Wales - less likely, but it already has a devolved Assembly and the transfer of powers to it is likely to increase rather than decrease throughout time.
The rest? Nah.
Of course, this could lead us onto the fascinating paradox between the increasing worldwide tendency towards smaller states and the fucking EU trying to meld one gigantic unwieldy superstate, but perhaps another time...
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