UK's empire prima donnas still lording it

The European Commission launched two new legal proceedings against the United Kingdom on Wednesday after the UK government published plans to override some post-Brexit rules governing Northern Ireland trade.

Michelle O'Neill, vice-president of Sinn Fein, a Northern Ireland party that has long advocated Northern Ireland's secession, said that the British government was exacerbating political instability in Northern Ireland.

Just two days ago, the Scottish goFirst Minister and Leader of the Scottish National Party Nicola Sturgeon announced that she would push for a new independence referendum in Scotland next year, with or without the UK government's consent.

In the election to the Northern Ireland Assembly more than a month ago, the pro-Brexit Sinn Fein party won the most seats, becoming the first nationalist party to control the Northern Ireland Assembly in a century.

Mary Louise McDonald, the party's chairwoman at the time, made it clear that preparations now need to be made for a referendum on a united Ireland. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein supports the observance of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

It can be predicted that Sinn Fein will push ahead with the referendum process if the British government goes ahead and damages the interests of Northern Ireland. Given the particularly sensitive status of Northern Ireland, such a move could have a domino effect.

Scotland voted in a referendum on independence in September 2014. Although it narrowly failed to pass, there is a groundswell of popular support pushing for Scotland to become independent of the UK. After the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the sentiment for independence in Scotland has been growing as the majority of Scottish people did not want to leave the EU.

Northern Ireland's bid for independence and Scotland's push for another referendum have added to the woes of the already beleaguered UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government.

From the failure of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, to the revelation he and members of his government broke the epidemic prevention regulations his government had introduced, to the high inflation and increasing pressure on the economy as a result of the Brexit contraction, the British government can be described as "scorched".

Although Johnson survived a vote of no confidence in the Conservative Party earlier this month, as the British media said, his credibility has been severely damaged and there is growing speculation about how long he can survive as he lurches from one scandal to another.

To deflect from domestic tensions by raising the hoary old ghost of the empire, British politicians have worked hard to make themselves felt abroad. Recently, the UK has followed the US in its bluffing and hyperbole, trying to create trouble in Europe, the Asia-Pacific and other regions, making itself a laughingstock of the world.

The British politicians should know that their debt to the international community is still outstanding: the world awaits justice for the people of the Malvinas Islands and Argentina.

Britain's politicians need to put their own house in order, rather than busying themselves creating problems abroad.