There is a net flow of electricity (and of course oil and gas) from the North to the South within the UK.
This is exaggerated at peak times, as the hydro-power and pumped storage plants in Scotland and Wales are used to meet peak demand, including the TV Pickup.
So yes, in the event of the dissolution of the union, then there will be strong incentives to arrange some sort of trade deal fairly quickly.
Interestingly, the Cross-channel interconnectors aren’t actually regulated by the EU, so they could be expected to continue running in the event of Brexit.
You might be able to tell that I’ve done a bit of “Ha Ha, but seriously will the lights go out” research on this.
Labour, Conservative and the middle ground are just variations on the past. We need to be looking to the future for solutions to our problems, not trying to go back to ‘the good old days’ (which weren’t good, no matter which factions view you believe).
Technically, the United Kingdom is the result of James VI of Scotland becoming James I of England and Ireland too in 1603, and the formal Acts of Union in 1707. England and Scotland, not any other parties.
Interesting point about N.Ireland being the rump of the Kingdom of Ireland, but that feels a bit tenuous to me.
[ETA: No, I’m wrong about the Kingdom of Ireland. Sorry. Ignore me.]
I could see England and Wales still calling themselves ‘the UK’ after Scotland and (maybe) N.Ireland leave, but there wouldn’t be a historical basis for it. Technically.
I’m not advocating a return to anything, just suggesting that there’ll tend to be a right wing, a left wing, and parties between. However existing and new groupings evolve, they’ll still fit on the same social and economic spectra.
I’m not historian, but according to wikipedia United Kingdom specifically refers to GB+Ireland. England+Scotland was referred to as Great Britain, always (I can’t tell if you’ve edited to reflect this, so apologies if so). So weirdly, no Scotland, still UK, no N. Ireland, no UK!
The largest of the British Isles is ‘Great Britain’. That’s independent of the country or countries occupying the landmass, which has existed since, ooh, the last Ice Age?
2: Sovereign entities (countries)
Pre-1603: Scotland independent of England and Ireland.
England and Ireland in personal union (separate countries with the same monarch).
1603: Scotland, England and Ireland all ruled by James VI and I, but formally three separate countries. No country of Great Britain yet!
1706-7 Acts of Union formally unite Scotland with England & Ireland, as two countries with one monarch: Great Britain and Ireland.
1800: Act of Union formally unites Great Britain with Ireland, as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ‘Great Britain’ the country formally ceases to exist.
Irish independence: the Republic of Ireland revokes 1800 Act (as late as the 1960s?), which still applies in N.Ireland. I now agree that makes N.Ireland the rump of that kingdom. I have learned something!
So
if Scotland leaves, no more country once-called ‘Great Britain’, but still occupying the island called Great Britain!
If N.Ireland leaves and Scotland stays, I suppose ‘Great Britain’ could exist again, though ‘United Kingdom (of England and Scotland)’ seems more likely.
If both leave, no more UK at all.
If Wales leaves… well, we weren’t counted in the name(s) anyway…
Pedantry mode on: the phrase “United Kingdom” (with inconsistent capitalisation) was sometimes used to refer to Great Britain before the union with Ireland: it is so used throughout the Parliament of Scotland’s version of the Act of Union, for example (e.g., article 3: “That the United Kingdom of Great Britain be Represented by one and the same Parliament, to be stiled the Parliament of Great Britain.”)
But it doesn’t seem clear whether it was considered an official title or merely a descriptive phrase.
The “British Isles” is a political term which I reject and will never use. Geography is politics as much as history is. Ireland is not part of some “British Isles”. The “mainland” from here is Europe.
Irish Independence: there is no such entity as “the republic of Ireland” other than the soccer team. The name of Ireland in English is… “Ireland”. See Article 4 of the constitution:
THE STATE
ARTICLE 4
Lots of countries in the EU are called the republic of wherever, Ireland is not. The soccer team is but the FAI are possibly more incompetent than they are corrupt.
