I always thought the British had an interesting perspective on their former empire - there was a survey done back in 2014 in which 59% percent of respondents said that the empire is more something to be proud of than ashamed of (https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2014/07/26/britain-proud-its-empire). That number has decreased since then, but the positive outlook on the empire still apparently dominates (https://yougov.co.uk/topics/international/articles-reports/2020/03/11/how-unique-are-british-attitudes-empire). It’s concerning, but not totally surprising. Here across the pond, people across the Southern states for a long time have romanticized the slave-supporting Confederacy with statues and the “Lost Cause” theory. In Russia, Stalin is still heaped with praise despite killing millions of people while he was alive.

In regards to the U.K., I can see that how it’s not as homogenous as the U.S. and is, in fact, made up of several conquered nations - although it seems Scotland’s union with England was voluntary. My concern with Scotland and the other regions - Wales and Cornwall - becoming independent is whether they and England would have the economic and military power to stand up to a country like Russia. Currently the UK remains one of the most powerful and, yes, democratic nations in the world, but splitting it up might seriously undermine this. With Russia and China making pushes against both their own people and certain sovereign nations, we need to ensure that they don’t cross the line, and the U.S. cannot be relied upon to do this alone.