As a strong decentralist in the matter of many governmental functions, I was most intrigued last night when the 'British' women's curling team was being interviewed on TV after beating Canada in the Olympic Games semi-finals. (Sorry about that, you Candanian FWers! I hope you'll be rooting for us in the finals against the US!)
Their accents revealed that all of the team, to a woman, were in fact Scottish! However, the curlers seemed to be content to be part of a British contingent. I was a bit surprised about this, particularly since there was a huge outcry from all sides recently when a government minister stupidly proposed that there should be a British soccer team instead of separate English and Scottish teams. The fact is that, since the institution of a new Scottish Parliament a year or two ago, increasing numbers of Scottish people are more supportive of Scottish devolution than ever before. Parallel to this, the rather weaker Welsh Assembly instituted a year or two ago is becoming more strident as time goes on, particularly as regards more independent control of education and health, both of which are in an even worse condition than in England. And, in England, whereas only 30% of the population described themselves as English rather than British a few years ago, almost half the population do so today (as I do myself). (In my case, I do so not because I am a nationalist in the usual sense but because I feel an extreme distaste for the type of pomp and imperialism of the British Empire which disfigured our history from about 1850 to 1950). However, on reflection, I think Scottish curling team has demonstrated that each of us is capable of feeling multiple identities. (The Scottish also consider themselves much more European than the English.) I think this is an encouraging portent. The world of the future is going to need all sorts of transnational governments -- for pollution control, freshwater rationing, fishing stocks, accountancy standards, trade, etc. -- and a more lateral type of govenmental structure than the highly centralised ones that have caused so much warfare in the last couple of centuries. Keith Hudson __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
