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Transcript: Great Scot!
Calls for Scottish independence didn’t start with Brexit, but now that the UK has officially left the EU, the Scots are in a serious dilemma. In Britain Today, Colin Beaven wonders if he shouldn’t show some support for his northern neighbours.
I’m thinking of asking if I can become Scottish. I’ve no idea whether it’s possible, but Scotland’s population is getting smaller, so it would be nice to help them out. Lots of British people became Irish, French or German citizens after the Brexit vote, so why not become a Scot?
In any case, under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership, Scotland’s government seems more sensiblevernünftigsensible than the one we have in London. She leads the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), and while I’d normally run a mile from anything that calls itself “nationalist”, I can understand Scotland’s frustration.
In 2014, the SNP lost Scotland’s independence referendum, but in 2016, the country voted to stay in the EU. Now, there’s renewednochmalig, erneutrenewed talk of independence, so Scotland could then ask to to rejoinsich wieder anschließenrejoin the EU. If all Nigel Farage and his Brexiteers wanted was to say goodbye to Scotland, why didn’t they just say so? I wouldn’t really welcome the botherMühe, Scherereienbother of actually moving to Scotland, but I’d be more than happy to go there every now and then to show that I’m taking my Scottishness seriously — such as wearing tartanSchottenkarotartan and eating shortbreadschott. Mürbeteiggebäckshortbread in front of Edinburgh Castle. After all, it can’t take long to get there in this in this day and ageheutzutageday and age. An easy day trip, surely. The only problem is that we don’t have any high-speed trains — apart from those on the line from London to the Channel Tunnel. It takes more than four hours to travel the 400 miles from London to Edinburgh — but only two and a half hours to cover almost the same distance by train from Paris to Bordeaux.
Why hasn’t the UK built more high-speed trains? Is it because of chronic underinvestment in the north of the country? Northerners often complain that too much is spent in the south, on projects like the Elizabeth line in London, which has already cost about £15 billionMilliarde(n)billion and still isn’t ready.
Or does the government simply want to be sure that we have plenty of time to enjoy the countryside? And watch champion cyclist Chris Froome come to whizzzischenwhizzing past on his bike as he overtakes the train we’re travelling in.
Well, France also has lovely countryside, but that didn’t prevent its government from investing in the TGVfrz. HochgeschwindigkeitszugTGV. True, the French countryside isn’t all lovely. When the Channel Tunnel was new, I took my mother on a trip from London to Paris. She’d always loved France, even though she hated the EU.
She to doze offwegdösen, einnickendozed off as the train sped across plains south of Calais. When she woke up, she complained about the view from the window. “The countryside here is so boring.”
“Mum, you’re looking at a concreteBetonconcrete wall. It’s there to stop the noise from the train annoying the locals.” Now, after many protests about costs and damage to the environment, Britain has finally decided to go ahead with its plans to build a second high-speed rail link: from London to Birmingham.
Later, the link will be extended to Manchester and Leeds. Leeds is almost half way to Edinburgh and Glasgow. High-speed progress indeed!
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