Shall we say goodbye to the United Kingdom? (Warning: This article has a lot of difficult vocabulary)

Do you know what the full name of the U.K. is?  It is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  Great Britain is the main island of the British Isles, and contains England, Scotland and Wales.  Northern Ireland is a small country which is the northern part of the island of Ireland.  Only that northern part is a member of the U.K.  The southern part of Ireland, called the Republic of Ireland, is a separate country.  This is already complicated enough to confuse most of my Japanese students.

But it gets more complicated.  My home country, Scotland is thinking about becoming independent from the U.K.  There is a referendum in September, 2014, to decide if we will become an independent country or remain as part of the U.K.

It’s a very complicated issue and if I try to explain in detail then this will become a very long article, but let me explain three of the main reasons why some people want Scotland to be independent.

First of all, Scotland had a long history as an independent country.  The first king of Scotland ruled from some time in the 9^th century and Scotland was independent until 1707, nearly 900 years later.  Even after the United Kingdom was formed in 1707, many laws and customs remained different in Scotland.

Secondly, the economic situations and political beliefs common in Scotland and England tend to be different.  Scotland became more dependent on heavy industry than England and after the Second World War, when heavy industry declined, Scotland had more problems with unemployment, poverty and poor health than most of England.  The years when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the U.K. were particularly difficult times for Scotland when many industries collapsed.  Margaret Thatcher’s party, the Conservative Party, are not very popular in Scotland.  The Labour Party and the Scottish National Party get many more votes in Scotland.  The Conservative Party remains the most popular party in England and they are the largest party in the U.K. parliament at the moment.

Thirdly, there is a lot of oil and gas in the sea around Scotland.  If Scotland becomes independent, the country will be able to make money from this oil and gas.

If Scotland votes ‘Yes’ in the referendum, many things will change.  And Scotland will say goodbye to the rest of the U.K.  We will have to wait until September to find out what will happen.
 

Vocabulary:

To be separate – to be different, not connected.

Independent – If a country is independent, then it is not a part of another country and is not controlled by another country.  For example, Japan is an independent country but Tibet and the state of California are not.

A referendum – A referendum is a vote which takes place across a whole country.  The government asks the voters of a country to decide on an issue.

To be dependent – If you are dependent on something then you rely on it; you cannot survive without it.

Unemployment – Not having a job.

Poverty – This is the noun form of the word ‘poor’.  Not having much money.

To collapse – If something collapses, then it suddenly falls down.  If an industry collapses, then it may suddenly become bankrupt or disappear.