Darlin', You Gotta Let Me Know

Last week, Britain had an election. The Conservatives won again, though this time with a majority. Since their ineffectual minority partners, the Liberal Democrats, didn't make much of an impression anyway, it's hard to see how this election made any difference.

Outside of Scotland, anyway. One interesting aspect is that the separatist Scottish National Party won nearly every seat in Scotland. So it's official, Scotland is in full Quebec mode: not wanting to work with the rest of the country, but also not quite willing to commit to a split.
Speaking of people who won't quite separate, the big news is that the Conservatives will be holding a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union. It's such a big deal, they've even given it the already-grating name, "brexit," for British exit.

This decision should be interesting, since the British have developed a strange relationship with the EU: everyone seems to hate it, bit no one does anything about it. It's fitting that they use the word, "Eurosceptic" to refer to someone who dislikes the UK's membership in Europe, yet you never seem to hear anyone described as simply, "Anti-Europe." Politicians - including PM Cameron have used Europe as a crowd-pleasing punching bag, but now they'll have to put their money where their mouths are.

But I'm not sure they will. Someone over there floated the idea of renegotiation. That is, the idea that, rather than accept the obvious options of stay or go, there's also the possibility that they could just renegotiate the terms of their membership. And that's the second Quebec connection: they've introduced a hypothetical possibility that they can get the best of both worlds through the magic of negotiation.

I'm certainly a fan of talking, negotiation, and compromise. But I recognize that they are limited by the obvious fact that there's another side to the dealings. I'm amazed at how often people get taken in by this idea that they can get anything through negotiation, even when it's clearly something the other side would never agree to.

So this whole process could get frustrating to watch, but at least we'll have the satisfaction of watching the UK simultaneously separator and separatee.