the Scots are becoming a quite nationalistic bunch
Becoming?! It's never been different! Same goes for the Welsh (but noone notices cause they're not as loud), and the northern Irish (which everyone noticed because they actually used bombs). And yet Britain as a country persists. Separationist forces are abundant in almost every country.
In the Netherlands, everyone wants to get rid of Limburg. In France and Spain, the Basks want their own country, Spain also has the Catalans who don't really want to belong, Corsica and Sicily have separationist movements, northern Italy has a strong one, the Balkan is so separationist that countries come and go every year, northern Greece has them, they're everywhere. Only in Germany everyone's quiet. Well, except for the anarchists.
Which brings me to another one. Currently the EU is not a state. The EU member states, however, are states. And even within those smaller states people are willing to kill to gain sovereignty. Or power. Or chicks, or whatever.
To show how far we still are from a real superstate, I'd like to present to you:
[cue echo]
TERRORISTS ATTACK IN THE EU![/echo]
(these are the numbers for 2006. So that's 500 attacks in 1 year.)
Member State | Islamist | Separatist | Left-Wing | Right-Wing | Other/Not Specified | Total |
Austria | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Belgium | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
France | 0 | 283 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 294 |
Germany | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 13 |
Greece | 0 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
Ireland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Italy | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
Poland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Portugal | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Spain | 0 | 136 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 145 |
UK | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
Total | 1 | 424 | 55 | 1 | 17 | 498 |
(numbers from 2007 Interpol report, found
here)