I don't disagree with your general point, but i am currently reading Sir John Elliot's account of Catalan and Scottish Nationalism. I haven't got to the Act of Union yet, (spoilers sweetie!) but in 1603 Scots and English agreed they should share a monarch, but not much else (to James' disappointment). Had things gone differently prior to 1603 we might have found an English nobleman distantly related to the Plantagenets, rather than have a Catholic Scot. By the time we got to the Act of Union the Political Nations of both countries were, grimly, reconciled to one another. My own suspicion is that we will go back, around 2050, in a rather more emphatic way, than you or I might have liked had the People's Vote prevailed. But, in that time, the EU might have become more centrifugal or the EU might be an irrelevance in a world dominated by authoritarian nationalist powers. The thing is that the World, the EU and the UK will not stay still between now and then and the sort of 'Leave the EU but stay in the Single Market' line may well not be on offer in a decade or so's time. It might be like asking for the union which prevailed on the death of Elizabeth to be kept in perpetuity on the death of Queen Anne.
I don't disagree with your general point, but i am currently reading Sir John Elliot's account of Catalan and Scottish Nationalism. I haven't got to the Act of Union yet, (spoilers sweetie!) but in 1603 Scots and English agreed they should share a monarch, but not much else (to James' disappointment). Had things gone differently prior to 1603 we might have found an English nobleman distantly related to the Plantagenets, rather than have a Catholic Scot. By the time we got to the Act of Union the Political Nations of both countries were, grimly, reconciled to one another. My own suspicion is that we will go back, around 2050, in a rather more emphatic way, than you or I might have liked had the People's Vote prevailed. But, in that time, the EU might have become more centrifugal or the EU might be an irrelevance in a world dominated by authoritarian nationalist powers. The thing is that the World, the EU and the UK will not stay still between now and then and the sort of 'Leave the EU but stay in the Single Market' line may well not be on offer in a decade or so's time. It might be like asking for the union which prevailed on the death of Elizabeth to be kept in perpetuity on the death of Queen Anne.
One of the most useful Brexit analysis I read in a while. Yay for Asimov!!