Scottish Independence

I think we can assume the UK name will continue but the full name will become "United Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland". United Kingdomisf perfectly fine because:
A) it'll still be a Kingdom
B) what'll left of it will still be United.

Except it's not united. You see, in 1707 when the union was created, it was England + Scotland = Great Britain. Then in 1800, Great Britain plus Ireland = United Kingdom. Ireland got independence in 1922 (Northern Ireland declared independence from Ireland one day later and rejoined the UK, much like Crimea rejoining Russia from the Ukraine recently, except that that one took 25 years). With Scotland gone too, only one of the entities that originally formed the United Kingdom remains. England. Wales and Northern Ireland aren't kingdoms, hence, no more United Kingdom without Scotland.

It's a name. It doesn't have to mean anything.

With all this talk of a 'SBS' I'm wondering if we could see in reality STV taking the role of the only 'mainstream' PSB (1-2 channels), while leaving it's current arrangements with the Channel 3/ITV network. However if Scotland does become independent, it does sound like Channel 4 could be coming along for the ride though as the 'alternative' PSB with up to 9% of future Productions being made in Scotland. Therefore I guess we might see a Channel 4 Scotland? How many channels would they provide? No matter what has been said about the current C3/C4/C5 renewals being safe, I just don't see how Scottish PSB TV can continue as at present.

I'm wondering if STV/Channel 4 might receive some Licence Fee money towards Scottish programming (using this Advertising/Licence Fee funding option could see the Licence Fee actually be reduced in Scotland, contrary to the talk of large increases)? Some form of the BBC could then possibly be received as a foreign channel (with some BBC shows shown by STV/C4 Scotland instead). I can see one version of Scotland's future where BSkyB/Virgin etc do an even better trade in the future...hmm...almost like some sort of conspiracy.

That's also my understanding, JAS84.

Technically the United Kingdom ceased to exist in 1922, as only one Kingdom remained - that of Great Britain: the same as after the 1707 Acts of Union. As you correctly stated, neither Wales nor Northern Ireland are kingdoms. However, that was conveniently ignored at the time, and can be again.

Separating the Kingdom of Great Britain back into its pre-1707 parts doesn't really change that fact as there will still only be one kingdom in the nation state - but it gives the opportunity to include Wales in the name of the country.

However, just the Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland would be more (if not totally) accurate.

Former United Kingdom (using the precedent of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ) was suggested by Newsnight, in jest, as you have to consider the abbreviation would be most unwelcome.

What about Sky news? that seems to have gone under the radar.. Sky only has one correspondent, Maybe it could do a deal with STV for certain packages?

Why would they? Do they do that with RTE in the ROI? The ROI apparently only has a single correspondent so why should Scotland expect more?

Scotland will be lucky if they even get an advertising sub-region on Sky News otherwise it'll just be the main UK service.

There was more for a while, when Sky News Ireland was running, but it has been trimmed back since. I'm not sure Sky would be keen to repeat that experiment though.

There is almost no Irish News on Sky on a day to day basis. However, it's still very popular in Ireland. You go into banks and businesses and it's the channel on in the corner, plus News orientated Households in the Republic would have it as the default News Channel out of habit rather than BBC News, which isn't on the SKY ROI EPG. When the referendum wasn't on there was little news about Scotland on Sky. Obviously Scotland will remain centre of attention if it's a Yes Vote.

A Scottish OFCOM might demand a sky cover certain story etc or it will no longer be official up north?

Indeed, and even though BBC News is on the UPC EPG (in a higher position than Sky News!) it would still be the default in those households owing to the fact that in analogue days it was the only news channel on cable in most Irish homes.




On what basis? Even now Ofcom has not got that kind of management control over a broadcaster that it could demand it cover a certain story. Freedom of the press and all that!

Who's to say the NEW scottish OFCOM wont have Teeth?