UK Election - is this the end of the UK as a major power in the world?
For those that have not yet woken up to the implications of the UK election let me help you. We could see the UK losing its UN Security Council seat in the next 5 years.
Why do i say that? Lets look at the results for a moment. In Scotland the Scottish National Party (SNP) took 56 of the 59 seats. The Conservatives have been returned with a small majority. The Liberal Democrats have nearly been wiped out. Three party leaders have resigned the Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP. We are in a new uncharted world now.
We just had a referendum on if Scotland should stay in the UK and that was won by 10%. The SNP said there would not be a second referendum unless there was massive change in Scotland. Well now there has been so a second referendum is now on the cards and it must look very much as if that would go for independence from the UK. We are in this position because of many reasons: the Labour Party has imploded in Scotland because of a lack of delivery - the Conservatives played a England nationalist card warning against a Labour- SNP alliance which seemed to work in the English seats which Labour had hoped to win and as one Labour MP said of the tsunami in Scotland it was like cult following they were not interested in policies.
Some would say this is also a result from the disillusionment in the political parties in the UK after the expenses scandal.
The Conservatives have promised a referendum on the UK being in the EU by 2017. So we could find ourselves by the next election in 2020 as a union without Scotland and out of the EU.
How the position of the UK in the world will change because of this is now up for debate. Clearly such a reduction of influence in the world will bring the seat in the Security Council up for serious debate and I can not see the UK retaining that seat.We will be falling back in political influence to the levels of Spain, the Netherlands and Italy no longer one of the big players.Some of that has already started to happen in New York at the UN - the UK no longer has the influence it used to have and when it tries to use it it often does it so badly eg Rio+20, the SDGs.
So time to consider a new Security Council - countries like South Africa, Brazil, Germany and India should be at the top of that list. Should they have veto power? What should be done about the veto?
The UK election and what could be the situation by 2020 reopens a real opportunity for a change in the UN and the UK to assume its new position as small island with not too many friends.
Why do i say that? Lets look at the results for a moment. In Scotland the Scottish National Party (SNP) took 56 of the 59 seats. The Conservatives have been returned with a small majority. The Liberal Democrats have nearly been wiped out. Three party leaders have resigned the Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP. We are in a new uncharted world now.
We just had a referendum on if Scotland should stay in the UK and that was won by 10%. The SNP said there would not be a second referendum unless there was massive change in Scotland. Well now there has been so a second referendum is now on the cards and it must look very much as if that would go for independence from the UK. We are in this position because of many reasons: the Labour Party has imploded in Scotland because of a lack of delivery - the Conservatives played a England nationalist card warning against a Labour- SNP alliance which seemed to work in the English seats which Labour had hoped to win and as one Labour MP said of the tsunami in Scotland it was like cult following they were not interested in policies.
Some would say this is also a result from the disillusionment in the political parties in the UK after the expenses scandal.
The Conservatives have promised a referendum on the UK being in the EU by 2017. So we could find ourselves by the next election in 2020 as a union without Scotland and out of the EU.
How the position of the UK in the world will change because of this is now up for debate. Clearly such a reduction of influence in the world will bring the seat in the Security Council up for serious debate and I can not see the UK retaining that seat.We will be falling back in political influence to the levels of Spain, the Netherlands and Italy no longer one of the big players.Some of that has already started to happen in New York at the UN - the UK no longer has the influence it used to have and when it tries to use it it often does it so badly eg Rio+20, the SDGs.
So time to consider a new Security Council - countries like South Africa, Brazil, Germany and India should be at the top of that list. Should they have veto power? What should be done about the veto?
The UK election and what could be the situation by 2020 reopens a real opportunity for a change in the UN and the UK to assume its new position as small island with not too many friends.
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