Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Angry
And again the UK / ROI cross border collaboration is cited as a current working and successful model.
"The pro-independence group, Academics for Yes, pointed to collaborations across the Irish border.
"Several bilateral arrangements exist between the UK and the Republic of Ireland," a spokesman said.
"These include joint funding arrangements between the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences, the merging of the postgraduate research councils of the Republic and Northern Ireland, and an agreement giving the universities of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast access to the Republic's scientific research funding scheme.
"Why would an independent Scotland be treated differently?""
From here. |
I think a lot of people wilfully ignore the somewhat difficult circumstances in which the Irish Republic was founded, the partition of the island and the many cross-border institutions and arrangements, both formal and informal, which exist.
To repeat the obvious, this referendum campaign is not an argument over whether it is possible for Scotland to be independent. It is an argument over whether it is desirable.
And in the realm of scientific research, as with so many others, the nationalist case seems to be to tear up arrangements that
just work because they exist within the context of a unified nation state, and replace them with cross-border agreements between sovereign states. With all the goodwill in the world, agreements between separate, sovereign governments are never going to be as easy to set up and operate as those that are made in a domestic context.