Scottish, Welsh, and Sinn Féin leaders push for independence to break up the UK…

The rest of the leaders of the UK regions are ganging up on poor aul Blighty. They meet in Cardiff today to discuss their plans.

From the BBC:

The first ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have begun meeting in Cardiff to discuss “working more closely” including on constitutional issues.

It is the first face-to-face meeting among the nationalist leaders since Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth was elected in May, with all three wanting their countries to leave the United Kingdom.

But there are differences in what they are calling for in the immediate term; with Scotland’s John Swinney and Northern Ireland’s Michelle O’Neill openly talking about wanting referendums, while in Wales ap Iorwerth has ruled out pushing for one now.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald is also attending.

Ap Iorwerth will hold further talks with Swinney in the afternoon in their roles as government leaders, with both men expected to sign an agreement on “future collaboration in areas of shared interest”.

For the first time since devolution began, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have first ministers who want to leave the United Kingdom, with the three meeting on Monday as representatives of their parties.

I know people will focus on the headline of trying to break up the union but if you step back there are good pragmatic reasons why the three regions should be working together more closely. I have often wondered, given our historic links with Scotland, why we don’t do more joint projects with the Scottish government. It seems such an obvious thing for the Celtic regions to work together for mutual benefit.

So I know today’s activities will wind up unionists but there are just as many unionists with family connections in Scotland as there are nationalists. We should all be thinking of the best way to work with our Celtic cousins.

Brian O'Neill

Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.