July 28, 2008 (LPAC)--British establishment figure Simon Jenkins, peeks out from the common verbiage and spin on the Glasgow East, Scotland by-election of July 24, in which the Scottish National Party stunningly captured a long-held Labour Parliament seat, to proffer a larger truth: The British Empire, consolidated by the 1707 Act of Union, is finished.

In the July 27 Sunday Times, in an article entitled, "Glasgow Spells the End of 300-Year Union," Jenkins, whose career has included stints as editor of the Times, the Economist and the Standard, writes, "Labour is numb following its Glasgow East humiliation. But by-election numbness is not new to ailing governments. What is new is the scale and source of that numbness: Scotland."

Jenkins looks at all the consoling things that the Labour Party might consider for itself, but then sharply snaps, this misses the point. He asserts, "The trouble is that thinking of England is not the point. Scotland is. The phenomenon of Scottish nationialism was widely dismissed last year as boisterous William Wallace indulgence. It was aided by Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) with the calibre of a national leader, who shrewdly decided to make his mark locally. When last year the Scots voted the SNP into office, by the narrowest of margins, it was regarded as a protest against Tony Blair, against the Iraq war, against English centralism, by bloody-minded Scots.

"What nobody in England-- or Scottish Labour--was prepared to accept was that the Scots might have voted quite specifically to be more independent of England." The Glasgow East election confirms this.

Eight years ago, the British government decided to accord "devolution," some limited autonomy to Scotland and Wales. But now, the Scots have taken control of health, higher education, environment and transport. When the Scots take control of taxes-- which Jenkins views as inevitable--the Rubicon would have been crossed.

A liberated Scotland, which is as large as Denmark, "should liberate English politics," he says. Echoing a broader point developed by Lyndon LaRouche, Jenkins adds, "Glasgow East has done more than deliver a bloody nose to the most Scots of modern Prime Ministers [Gordon Brown is Scottish]. It has accelerated a process that may soon rearrange the political and geographical components of the United Kingdom. This is not just for the best. It is for real."