Current Events & Trends: Scottish vote highlights UK divisions

Westminster made major concessions to persuade voters. Delivering on those promises will further alter the relationship between the two countries. "There will always be an England," the old saying goes, but its standing in the world continues to decline. The debate surrounding this vote is a symptom of the decline of the English-speaking nations—the most successful confederation of peoples in the history of mankind.

In the end the likely deciding issue was economics. Too much money already flows north to subsidize education, research and industry. Scotland's economic future was more important in this case than history, tradition and culture.

The lesson for England? Break down the elitism that forms barriers with others. Treat those with common ancestry and language as equals. There is nothing to lose by taking this kind of approach.

Writing in The American Interest on Sept. 12, Walter Russell Mead said: "The British political establishment has been tried and found wanting in this referendum; unfortunately it is not alone. The leaders of the European Union have conspicuously and repeatedly failed to master the vital and urgent issues that confront them.

"The euro has ruined and embittered a third of the European Union; populist movements of protest and resistance are bringing fascism back from the grave in more than one country. Outside, the enemies of every European ideal are gathering strength; inside, voters across Europe increasingly find the post-War social-democratic order bland, remote, and overbearing" ("A Royal Mess").

Europe and America continue to grapple with a destabilizing mixture of events. As the current leadership of America and the United Kingdom struggles to effectively defend and explain their importance to the modern world, Bible prophecy reveals that another power will arise on the world scene to ensure order—at what will ultimately prove to be a devastating cost. (Source: The American Interest.)