To my knowledge, Wales is part of England, not a country of its own. I don't have a problem with Wales or the Welsh, I'm there most weekends. But why is there this urge for many Welsh, Scotts and even Cornish people to go their own way?

Here's my line of thought:

If I shop for essential foods for myself for a week, let's say it costs £50.

If I shop for 4 adults for a week, let's estimate £120, or £30 each.

Surely we can stand stronger, get things cheaper, compete in business and sports far better if we work together - that's why we have unions, and the bigger ones have more power.

The UK has a great deal to be proud of (plenty to be ashamed of too but name anywhere that doesn't?). We should celebrate our massive achievements and be proud of ourselves as a whole, the more united the better.

There are 2 main hurdles blocking this progress - corruption and hate.

Corruption

Governments, much like many religious organisations and any business, are interested in making money. The UK population is currently around 60 million, but we get less value for money than when the population was 50 million. We shouldn't be worrying about a struggling NHS, we have all these extra people paying taxes - just like the food shopping example above - the NHS should be cheaper per person and more powerful. But it isn't.

With corruption (and frankly theft) and incompetence within the government, it's easy to see why people would not like to be part of it.

Hate

Hatred is very easy to spread. Start with a young mind and they will struggle very hard to get rid of it. Schools teach history, but any event can be interpreted in so many ways - the most common is usually the one that suits the needs of the people in control.

A good example would be William Wallace. To many a brave hero that challenged an evil English occupation, to some historians a cowardly bully and inventor of terrorism who was eventually captured and handed over for execution by his own people.

The Dublin museum was, on my last visit, room after room of English attrocities and the suffering of the Irish at their hands. In all honesty I have no idea how much was accurate and how much was bias, I am sure however, that it's unlikey to help forge relations and remove the hatred that still exists.

I knew an Irish girl some years ago, she'd lived in England for about 6 years. One day she received a letter from her sister (this was before emails were the norm) telling her that she'd got engaged to her English boyfriend. My friend said she felt disappointed and upset that her sister was planning to marry an Englishman. It took a few moments for her to realise that over the last 6 years she'd made many English friends, almost all of whom had been very nice to her and were good people. That was the realisation of what she called 'brainwashing', from school and growing up in Southern Ireland.

It's the same all over, it's often the blame game. You're not happy? it's because of the English, or the Irish, or the Germans, or the Afghans. This offers a far more simple solution than 'we're just not very good at running your country' or 'we'd like to steal everything you have, and don't really have a good excuse'.

Maybe one day we can have people who actually care running our countries and we can get rid of the hatred and join together. Sadly I don't think I'll get to see it in my lifetime.