United Devolution Party in the UK?

I don't know much about the politics of the UK, but I was just wondering if such a thing would be possible. You've got the SNP, Sinn Fein, and Plaid Cymru who all advocate greater autonomy or outright independence for their respective regions. I was just wondering if various groups in Scottland, Wales, and Northern Ireland could unite into one party promoting devolution and regionalism? What would be a possible POD to cause this?
 
I don't know much about the politics of the UK, but I was just wondering if such a thing would be possible. You've got the SNP, Sinn Fein, and Plaid Cymru who all advocate greater autonomy or outright independence for their respective regions. I was just wondering if various groups in Scottland, Wales, and Northern Ireland could unite into one party promoting devolution and regionalism? What would be a possible POD to cause this?


Doubtfull, since each of the three parties advocate different things-
  • Plaid has basically dropped its seperatist leanings. Now it wants more autonomy for Wales.
  • The SNP want an independent Scotland, but in personal union with the rest of the UK.
  • Sinn Fein want a united republican Ireland, with them in charge.
However, the SNP and Plaid Cymru have recently buddied up because of the upcoming election. I just don't see them joining with Sinn Fein. The SDLP, maybe, but not Sinn Fein - there are just too many bad memories...
 
The problem is that the SNP etc don't want devolution as an end-point - they want, ultimately, independence, and devolution is only a step on the way to that. Having a united party would imply that they wished for some kind of pan-regional federation. Which is almost precisely what they're trying to get out of, really.

The SNP and Plaid do co-operate at Westminster and in small ways - that's about as good as you're going to get really.
 

Thande

Donor
It's not that far-fetched, the SNP and Plaid Cymru vote as one bloc in Parliament and the English Democrats have shared a platform with the SNP before. Obviously none of them are going to cooperate with Sinn Fein. Not sure about the SDLP.
 

Thande

Donor
The problem is that the SNP etc don't want devolution as an end-point - they want, ultimately, independence, and devolution is only a step on the way to that. Having a united party would imply that they wished for some kind of pan-regional federation. Which is almost precisely what they're trying to get out of, really.

Yeah, but if the SNP ever manage to hold an independence referendum they'll almost certainly lose it, and then I think they may mutate into just a Scottish regional interests party along the lines of Plaid Cymru or Canada's Bloc Quebecois.
 

Stephen

Banned
Im considering voting for the English Independence Party at the next Election screw all that hanging on to the dregs of empire stuff.
 
Yeah, but if the SNP ever manage to hold an independence referendum they'll almost certainly lose it, and then I think they may mutate into just a Scottish regional interests party along the lines of Plaid Cymru or Canada's Bloc Quebecois.

That doesn't follow that they will co-operate with Plaid though; surely their interests as regional parties are almost mutually exclusive. Barnet, for example, actually results in Wales being somewhat underfunded and I'm sure Plaid have probably latched onto that.
 
The SNP and Plaid co-operate a lot in Westminster (and they're part of the same European Parliament bloc). They'd have balls of steel to get too close to Sinn Fein though, although not as bad as 20-30 years ago.
 
The SNP and Sinn Fein is a total non-starter.

The majority of Catholics in Scotland historically used to oppose the SNP out of fear of a northern Orange free state. To have an SNP/Sin Fein alliance, you would have a bunch of Scots going against the Ulster-Scots.

It would be like the Hitler/Stalin pact.
 

ninebucks

Banned
Im considering voting for the English Independence Party at the next Election screw all that hanging on to the dregs of empire stuff.

I've never even heard of them before now, but from the looks of their website, they look like some kind of neo-Nazi organisation.
 
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