On Friday night I was having dinner at a restaurant in Palma. A couple sat at the next door table and when they were asked what language they would like their menu in they replied Scottish! I grinned and the waiter looked amazed. Moments later my telephone rang and I answered in English. When I finished the call, my Scottish neighbour leaned over and apologised for the "menu business". "No problem," I replied and he went on to say "sorry, thought you were Spanish". I laughed and said, I thought you were English.
We got talking and we agreed that we were living in very strange times. The British are not exactly flavour of the month in the European Union at the moment since Brexit and of course Scotland is on record as being more European than the rest of the United Kingdom. But the incident did underline the fact that Britain is a pretty divided country at the moment. There are those who are in favour of Brexit, those who are against, those in Scotland who favour a breakaway and those who want to stay as part of the United Kingdom. It is a great pity that the country can’t be brought together but the last two referendums have effectively split the country. Scotland is still split over independence and obviously Britain is divided over Brexit. And I suspect that this state of affairs is going to continue.
Scottish independence and Brexit are obviously very big issues so I can’t see people changing their minds overnight. But it must be remembered that Britain is still in Europe but not the European Union and the United Kingdom is still a united country. Making the United Kingdom united again will be no easy task and it may not be possible. Perhaps Brexit will see the country just splinter apart. A United Ireland and an independent Scotland. We are certainly living in very interesting times at the moment.