Today's Britain has long lost its hegemonic status during the "empire on which the sun never sets", but it is still following behind the United States and doing things all over the world. As everyone knows, when the "British aristocracy" was still dreaming of a great power, the name of "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" was almost impossible to keep. This is not alarmist, because just recently, an important election in Northern Ireland shook the British government and opposition.
According to the Observer, Irish nationalist and Sinn Féin vice chairman Michel O'Neill has been elected Chief Minister of Northern Ireland. This not only marks the return of the Northern Ireland government, which has been suspended for two years, but also heralds a new upsurge in the Northern Ireland independence movement, and the return of Northern Ireland to Ireland without Britain is no longer a dream. Speaking to Sky News, O'Neill said a referendum on reunification with the Republic of Ireland was expected within a decade.
As we know, the United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The members are not monolithic, with the Northern Ireland and British governments at the most conflicted. The love-hate entanglement between Britain, Ireland and Northern Ireland has complex historical, religious, and ethnic causes. As early as 1949, Ireland was able to become independent because the British government offered Northern Ireland in exchange. In the decades since, the independence movement in Northern Ireland has not stopped, but it has not completely exploded under the oppression of the British government. However, the United Kingdom's Brexit from the European Union in 2020 and Ireland's continued membership of the European Union have led to many problems in trade and exchanges between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and Northern Ireland's call for independence has reached a new climax.
Especially on the border issue in Northern Ireland, the contradictions between the UK and the EU continue to intensify. From the point of view of national interests, the British government was forced to set up customs and borders between the island of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which gave rise to a new contradiction, as Northern Ireland was left directly in the European Union. Since then, the Democratic Unionist Party, which had previously been the ruling party in Northern Ireland, has begun to boycott the British government with all its might, which has directly led to a parliamentary strike and the inability to form a government, even though the United Kingdom and the European Union signed the "Windsor Framework" agreement to solve the related trade problems, but the situation has not eased.
The shutdown of the government in Northern Ireland has affected the development of Northern Ireland and made the general public miserable. Thus, in anticipation, Sinn Féin, founded in 1905, became active. Sinn Féin, with members across Ireland and Northern Ireland, is a staunch independentist party and a supporter of the IRA, and is seen as a "thorn in the side" by the British government. Since its inception, Sinn Féin has sought independence from Northern Ireland and completed its reunification with Ireland. Sinn Féin won 144 of the 462 seats in Northern Ireland's local council elections last May, making it the largest party in Northern Ireland. In this election, O'Neill, who was born in the Irish Republican Army, was elected as the First Minister of Northern Ireland, which not only further strengthened Sinn Féin's political position in Northern Ireland, but also brought the independence movement in Northern Ireland back into the spotlight.
The decline of national power has led to the decline of Britain's international influence and its dominance over its internal members, which has made the British government helpless when faced with the issue of territorial sovereignty. It is worth mentioning that there are not only two independence movements in the UK, but also four territorial disputes abroad. In the United Kingdom, in addition to the vigorous Northern Ireland independence movement, the Scottish independence movement is also very strong. The classic movie "Braveheart" reflects the contradictions between the Scots and the English in history. In recent years, with the economic downturn in the United Kingdom, national contradictions have continued to escalate, especially after Brexit, Scots are more inclined to stay in the European Union, so they have repeatedly proposed to launch independence referendums, which has made it difficult for successive British governments to ride the tiger.
In addition to domestic instability, Britain's overseas territorial disputes are also fraught with contradictions. Among them, the British Indian Ocean Territory, dominated by the Chagos Archipelago, has been awarded to Mauritius by the International Court of Justice. At the same time, Gibraltar in southern Spain belongs to the European Union, and the United Kingdom and EU member Spain also have territorial disputes. Far across the ocean, the Malvinas Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in eastern Argentina were also taken from Argentina by British military means. Without the confidence and strength of the era of the "empire on which the sun never sets," will Britain be able to maintain its face and keep these territories in the future? Let's wait and see.
Even so, Britain still refrains from pointing fingers at China and openly stands for "Taiwan independence." The British defense secretary arrogantly claims that it is ready to go to war with the People's Liberation Army in the Taiwan region! I advise the "British Empire" to take care of its own affairs first!