The Yes campaign in Scotland will almost certainly be boosted by Dame Edna Everage's declaration of support for independence yesterday.
Dame Edna: It's great Scotland is leaving England ... to join New Zealand
As I'm sure Sir Les Patterson, the redoubtable (or should that just be doubtable?) Australian ambassador for culture, will be the first to tell her, Scotland will not only be joining New Zealand. It will be joining a whole host of countries that have gained their independence from the UK over the years.
United States of America ... 4 July 1776
Afghanistan ... 19 August 1919
Ireland (in part) ... 24 April 1922
Canada ... 11 December 1931
South Africa ... 11 December 1931
Australia ... 9 October 1942 (backdated to 3 September 1939)
Jordan ... 25 May 1946
Pakistan ...14 August 1947
India ... 15 August 1947
New Zealand ... 25 November 1947
Myanmar (Burma) ... 4 January 1948
Sri Lanka ... 4 February 1948
Israel ... 14 May 1948
Sudan ... 1 January 1956
Ghana ... 6 March 1957
Malaysia ... 31 August 1957
Cyprus ... 1 October 1960
Nigeria ... 1 October 1960
Kuwait ... 25 February 1961
Sierra Leone ... 27 April 1961
Tanzania ... 9 December 1961
Jamaica ... 6 August 1962
Trinidad and Tobago ... 31 August 1962
Uganda ... 9 October 1962
Kenya ... 12 December 1963
Malawi ... 6 July 1964
Malta ... 21 September 1964
Zambia ... 24 October 1964
The Gambia ... 18 February 1965
Maldives ... 26 July 1965
Guyana ... 26 May 1966
Botswana ... 30 September 1966
Lesotho .... 4 October 1966
Barbados ... 30 November 1966
Yemen ... 30 November 1967
Mauritius ... 12 March 1968
Swaziland ... 6 September 1968
Fiji ... 10 October 1970
United Arab Emirates ... 2 December 1971
Bahrain ... 16 December 1971
Bahamas ... 10 July 1973
Grenada ... 7 February 1974
Seychelles ... 29 June 1976
Solomon Islands ... 7 July 1978
Tuvalu ... 1 October 1978
Dominica ... 3 November 1978
Saint Lucia ... 22 February 1979
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ... 27 October 1979
Zimbabwe ... 18 April 1980
Vanuatu ... 30 July 1980 (and from France too)
Belize ... 21 September 1981
Antigua and Barbuda ... 1 November 1981
Saint Kitts and Nevis ... 19 September 1983
Brunei ... 1 January 1984
Fifty-four so far. Only a few left to go.
6 comments:
Well, some of Ireland.
Quite right, Carl. List amended.
Wales is waiting until it can be UN member dau cant, it's far easier to say.
Hong Kong?
Or even dau gant, Stu ... it's even easier to say ;-)
I knew there had to be a good reason why we were still waiting.
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Hong Kong didn't actually become independent, Lionel. It went back to being a part of China. But what you said got me thinking about Singapore. Looked at in a different way, you could argue that Singapore became independent of the UK in order to form part of Malaysia two weeks later; only to then be kicked out of Malaysia a couple of years after that. Whatever, they seem to have done OK for themselves as an independent state.
But isn't that true of all the rest as well? None of them wants to rejoin the UK.
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Strangely, Canada isn't on the wiki list. I added it.
The wiki dates for Australia and New Zealand are wrong. I've amended this list to show the dates on which they ratified the 1931 Statute of Westminster.
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