Ask Lemmy

Yay for United Kingdom of Craic! Ye soon be electing the king yearly based on might and soundness of his banter.

It’s true. My uncle is the Prime Minister of Wales and he was in meetings with Billy Connolly, David Beckham and Liam Neeson all weekend.

It started with this article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/09/13/irish-scots-and-welsh-leaders-meet-to-plot-break-up-uk/

Basically right now an independence referendum in Scotland can only be authorised by the Westminster (London) government. Whether Scotland wants one or not, thats how it is.

For the first time there are independence-supporting administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The first ministers of those countries will meet on Monday and agree a path forward, ultimately to make it harder for Westminster to say 'no' to future referendums.

This doesn't 'kick start the break up of the UK' - all it does is put pressure on Westminster not to block independence referendums when there's an appetite for them. The Prime Minister and his government can choose to ignore that. Nothing is changing.

The Telegraph and other right-leaning nonsense rags have latched onto this, exaggerating it because its red meat for their target audience. I think that's where the 'Russian interference' is, but I'm not a unionist and one of them might explain it better.

As things currently stand, Andy Burnham will just flat-out reject their demands. The only way I can see him agreeing to another referendum is if the next general election leads to a hung parliament with Labour as the biggest party.

A better question would be if such a referendum would succeed.

Scotland: probably not. But then again, one of the biggest reasons the Scottish people voted to remain twelve years ago was due to them losing their EU membership by going independent. They could apply to join the EU, but it's very possible that Spain could veto their accession on the basis that they don't want to give legitimacy to the Catalan independence movement. Brexit is a game-changer that could make Indyref2 succeed. And Hungary under Viktor Orban could have rejected it because he was a useful idiot to Russia. What doesn't help Scotland's case for independence is that the SNP nosedived in popularity since Nicola Sturgeon resigned.

Wales: definitely not. Support for Welsh independence is actually pretty damn low. Plaid Cymru winning big in the Senedd moreso represents how badly Labour fucked up under Keir Starmer. Welsh voters tactically voted them in to prevent a Reform UK majority.

Northern Ireland: maybe. The gap has narrowed since Brexit, and there is a particular clause in the Good Friday Agreement where the Secretary of State must agree to hold a referendum to unite Ireland if it appears likely that such a vote would succeed. I think the reason why this hasn't happened is because our deal with the EU has largely shielded Northern Ireland from the negative consequences of Brexit via a backstop.

I support the removal of Northern Ireland from the UK so that it can be reunited into the Irish Republic.

not for a while. There are always calls for independence from groups there but Scotland had a vote to stayor leave a while back and they wanted to stay.

They're planning to meet up to persuade the new prime minister (who is pro devolution generally) to do it in such a way as to allow the national assemblies to have more power, but it being a secret plot to break up the UK is a bit of rightwing hysteria and a massive over exaggeration.

No. Not true. There are very vocal groups that are calling referendums and voting on things that are not even part of the scope of elections to divide the union.

All this noise could be a Rusia operation to reduce the influence that together production and labor markets can yield much more than independently. Doing that without being part of a common market like the EU is simply not happening, no one will win anything if it comes to happen, just Rusia and other hostile countries.

Ignore the comments here saying that this is Russian interference or that it came “out of nowhere”.

Ireland has always wanted independence and has wanted to reunite since partition happened. The people in Ireland who identified as British opposed that and had the entire British state/terror services at their disposal. That has changed a lot and now even British settlers here are talking publicly and seriously about the potential (pros and cons) of reunification.

The vast majority of Britons are ignorant and diseducated on this matter so be careful which comments you trust.

It was never meant to last forever but the tide has been turning for some time now.

No, this is out of nowhere and it's basically just a formal request to the prime minister

If it goes anywhere, it'll take some time

Frankly I think the UK would like it if NI rejoined Ireland, it’d probably make things a lot simpler for everyone. There was a vote in the 70s and it was like 99% remain in the UK. The UK government has said that they’ll do a vote if it ever looked like the majority might want to rejoin but it’s not there right now. I know a few people from there and they agree with that.

I understand that a party that wants to reunify got voted into power there for the first time ever but I don’t think it was on any promise to reunify if you know what I mean, but I think things are slowly heading in that direction.

If the people of NI actually wanted to reunify I don’t know anyone in England who would have a problem with it, but the government won’t hand over any land if the majority of the people there want to remain part of the UK. Trump is just making his comments because he’s pissed that the UK wouldn’t help with the Epstein Wars.

It’s not breaking but it’s certainly broken