” Scotland is the second-largest COUNTRY in the United Kingdom, and accounted for 8.3% of the population in 2012. The Kingdom of Scotland emerged in the 9th …
Scotland is constituent country only in the context of Great Britain. Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) along with Northern Ireland are known as the United Kingdom. According to the Scotsman Scotlant is a political entity of the United Kingdon with some devolved laws. Scotland does not have external recognition outside of the United Kingdom. Therefore Scotland is not a country or state and is not recognised as one by the The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in their list of countries. If Scotland were recognised as a country or state so would the likes of Bavaria, South Tyrol, etc be recognised as “countries” too but they are not. Likewise the Common Travel Area (CTA) would not recognise Scotland as a Country. The CTA is a set of arrangements between the UK, Ireland, and some Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man) and allows British and Irish citizens to live and move freely between the two countries. If Scotland became independant it would need to negotiate with Westminster to continue to be part of the CTA. The EU has said it would not recognise Scotland as an independant country outside of the UK. The EU has said, An independent Scotland would to have to realise though that there’s a process to go through, criteria to meet. If Scotland wants to apply to join the EU, and is going to be a new state. applying to join the EU, is going to be a new state,” Hughes explained. The EU said Scotland hasn’t been a state for the past 300 years or more, so prior to applying Scotland will have a lot of different institutions and regulatory bodies, laws to set up. Previously done from London or at a UK level. For Scotland to meet the Copenhagen criteria, it would have to show that it’s a properly functioning democracy and a market economy. There would also be the issue of the border between Scotland and England, one country inside the EU, the other out and costs met by Scotland. So the fact that Scotland was once a Kingdom, no longer means tickety boo on the international stage!
As mentioned twice before, we are all entitled to hold an opinion,whether or not we agree with them!
The majority of Pro Independence for Scotland supporters will, no doubt, hold the opinion that Scotland is a Country, irrespective of evidence to the contrary , whereas the majority of those who oppose the breakup of the U.K. will likely hold the opposite opinion?
Just the same as pro Independence will be of the opinion that the Union of 1707 is not legal as it was forced upon the Scots, and the opposition will point to it being the union of Kingdoms -for ever.
What will be lost in the pro independence argument will be that the then Scottish Government was about as economically illiterate as the current SNP government is, and had brought Scotland to the verge of bankruptcy and was desperately in need of a bailout ,which came in the formation of the union
What is fact however, and is not open to political opinion, is that Great Britain’ is the collective name for the island which makes up England, Scotland, Wales and their islands. It comes from the political union of the three kingdoms which was made in 1707. Northern Ireland isn’t part of Great Britain.
Further, The British isles is purely a geographical term that refers to the entire island of Great Britain and Ireland. This one includes the Republic of Ireland too, along with the 5,000 small islands which are scattered around the coastlines.