Britain’s Four State Solution
There is growing support for secession, especially among young people.
The United Kingdom is sanctioning Israel over its treatment of a people they say are denied self-rule. Britain might want to check its own house first.
On Monday regional leaders of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland met in Cardiff to discuss holding independence referenda based on the right to self-determination. If successful, this effort could lead ultimately to the dissolution of the United Kingdom into four separate states. Their joint declaration stated, “Westminster’s time is coming to an end.”
Even under a Labour government there is no interest in Downing Street to see this effort move forward, certainly no more than you might get from Israeli conservatives discussing the Two State Solution. But the nationalist governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland may make the Four State Solution a reality.
We need not trace the blood-soaked history that unified the United Kingdom. The subjugation of Wales, repeated wars and dynastic intrigues with Scotland, and the conquest, and eventual loss of most of Ireland, are all part of the grand British saga.And while the English may want to let bygones be bygones, that’s an easier posture when your people are the settler colonialists.
The Welsh, Scots and Irish are indigenous peoples with separate cultures, languages and territories from the English. Their claim to national self-determination is certainly stronger and more deeply rooted than that of the Palestinians whose cause the British government has been promoting.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who had previously spoken favorably of independence referenda is now backpedaling, claiming the time is not ripe on independence votes because there is no clear consensus. His circular reasoning suggests that since there is no demand for independence there is no need to consult the people to see if the demand in fact exists.
Of course, there is no guarantee that even with the proposed referenda the result would be a split. Scotland voted to stay in the UK in a 2014 vote. And successive devolution acts have granted national governments more power, with the implicit bargain being they would stick with the English.
Yet there is growing support for secession, especially among young people. The reasons are not simply rising national consciousness; much has to do with the general incompetence of the British government and a belief that more localized governance would lead to more jobs, economic security and yes more national pride. And all three new states would seek membership in the European Union, since Scotland and Northern Ireland didn’t want Brexit to begin with, and the Welsh vote was split.
The separation process of the respective countries could happen based on the same principles and modalities that the UK has supported to resolve the Israel/Palestine issue. For example, in 2014 the UK supported UN General Assembly resolution 69/165 which reaffirmed the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination erga omnes, a right owed to all. Yes, even Wales.
There could be an agreement along the lines of UN Security Council Resolution 242 calling for English withdrawal from theoccupied territories, and “acknowledgement of sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the area.” National boundaries would be established on the internationally recognized cease-fire lines, i.e., the current borders, with mutually agreed upon land swaps if necessary. English settler evacuation would be conducted peacefully and by mutual agreement.
While waiting for the Four State Solution to be implemented, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland could join Palestine asnon-member observer states in the UN. Meanwhile countries wishing to demonstrate support for these oppressed peoples could grant them diplomatic recognition even if England refuses to agree to their independence. Boycotts and sanctions could follow, as they usually do.
Of course, at some point the analogy breaks down. No one is calling for a rash of Intifada-style violence, a return to The Troubles — are they? But the nations seeking independence from England would do well to copy the Palestinian political program which the British foreign policy establishment has enthusiastically endorsed. The Foreign Office has spent years telling Israel that borders drawn by conquest don’t age into legitimacy. Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are owed the same courtesy, and if London finds that logic uncomfortable when applied to Britain, it might reconsider how blithely it applies this thinking elsewhere.
