Archipelago

The group of large and small islands off the western coast of Europe have no name that is agreed among them all. Each island and each nation state has reasons from the history that binds them, despite their geo-political commonality, to reject any name - not the British Isles (the most beautiful ), because the Republic of Ireland, which calls itself Ireland, objects; not Great Britain, because it excludes the Union with six of the counties of ancient Ulster; not the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland because it excludes the the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey (including Alderney, Herm, and Sark), and the Isle of Man.

What should we call ourselves? We belong together, we need to recognize our alliance just as much as we need to recognize our sovereignties. And the sovereignty that Westminster has exercised over Scotland is ending, just as it did in the Republic of Ireland (but please God without the violence), just as Scottish interference in Westminster , and essentially English concerns, must end too. Westminster's role in Archipelago politics has ended as surely as did Westminster's role in Asia, in Africa and in the old Commonwealth countries.

'Ever since the break up of the Roman empire one of the constant facts of political life in Europe has been the emergence of independent nations. They have come into existence over the centuries in different forms, different kinds of government, but all have been inspired by a deep, keen feeling of nationalism, which has grown as the nations have grown.
In the twentieth century, and especially since the end of the war, the processes which gave birth to the nation states of Europe have been repeated all over the world. We have seen the awakening of national consciousness in peoples who have for centuries lived in dependence upon some other power. ' As ever, Harold Macmillan speaks as he eats: 'The wind of change is blowing through this continent [or Archipelago], and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it.'

The European Union has not ended national, and more local, conciousness, despite the bitter complaints of those who regret that the second War did not yield to the victor the spoils. Within its federalist co-operation, smaller nations and smaller regional and princely states, subsumed in the late nineteenth century into greater powers, are thriving again without destroying geo-political links with their own interests to pursue.

We must achieve the same, become not the 'Penisola' that calls itself Italy but is Tuscany, Lombardy, the Veneto...but become the Archipelago of the Western European Isles, with each nation ruling itself, and each and every interest at the federated Archipelago level - towards the Atlantic alliance, towards the Commonwealth, and towards the benefits of co-operation with Europe - more acceptably balanced.

To do that the 'constitutional conversation' that has been set off in Scotland (as have so many other great movements within our Archipelago) must be extended to each and every one of our islands, the largest and the smallest, and a truly new politics must be forged.