FROM SIAMESE TWINS TO BRITISH QUADRUPLET

 

The original Siamese Twins, joined at the torso and sharing a fused liver...

The current four British kingdoms, joined by the head (just take that image, time two...).

The Anglosphere is a quite strange animal, probably unique in all the human fauna.

The concept of the Anglosphere was created in England a few years ago. It simply means the aggregation of countries that share a common language (English), a common ethnic origine (an Anglo-Saxon majority), and a common sense of belonging and kinship. Essentially, five countries are part of it: the United States of America, the largest, the United Kingdom, the oldest, Canada, the land of minus 40 degrees winter, Australia, the island-continent, and New Zealand, the smallest.

Sometimes, the Irish Republic is added, but not often, since its history is quite different, and its basic ethnicity is Celtic, not Germanic. The millions of English-speaking white South Africans can also be added, even though their numbers are not very high, and they constitute a small minority in that country.

The Anglosphere, as usually defined, is composed of two groups of countries: one republic (the USA) and four British kingdoms sharing the same head of state and, essentially, the same political system, a continuation of the old British Empire, but loosened by time. The four constituent countries have gradually grown more autonomous, but the links with the British monarchy and the sentiments of the Anglo-Saxon majority of each country have served as unification factors.

Canada, for instance, was founded in the ashes of two French colonies, Canada and Acadia. British colonies were created on that foundation (Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, etc.), and some of them were united in 1867, the year of so-called Confederation. Current federal propaganda has taken to present that date as the start of an independent country named Canada, but it simply isn't true, since it was only an assemblage of British colonies transformed into British Provinces. In the 30', the Statutes of Westminster were adopted and created a separation between the accounts of the Confederation and those of the mother-country (England).

Canada is now widely considered an independent country, but in reality it isn't. The head of state is not the current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who is merely the leader of government, but the Queen Elisabeth II, represented by a Governor General (and in the provinces by Lieutemant-Governors). The present political system is not the result of the will of the population, as in the USA, but simply the result of a long process of increasing autonomy for what essentially remains a confederation of British provinces called Canada.

The end result is that the four British kingdoms all share the same head of state and, thus, despite being nominally independent, are still part of the old British Empire... Those four kingdoms are like conjoined twins, or more exactly, conjoined quadruples, joined by the bone of the head, with separate brains and separate bodies. The fifth member of the Anglosphere, the United States, used to be part of that animal, as thirteen British colonies that choose to separate violently from the mother-country. Thus, it can be considered like a disjointed member of the same family.

The original Siamese Twins were two brothers hailing from Thailand, a country once called Siam. Their names were Chang and Eng Bunker, and they lived from 1811 to 1874. They remained joined till their death, hours from each other.

In the case of the four British kingdoms, it can be surmised that, since they're not joined by any vital organs, but simply bones, figuratively, they can be separated chirurgically, without danger to their lives. In the case of Canada, such an operation may prove necessary, since that country need a complete political reform, with a redistribution of political powers among the main actors (First Nations, French Canadians, English Canadians and recent immigrants). One of the things that must be done is to separate the body of Canada from the body of the three other kingdoms. The link between the four kingdoms is the British royal family, and that institution, in Canada, must be replaced by a Republic. The nine provinces of English Canada may remain as they are, but the French-speaking province must become la République autonome du Québec, with increased powers, and the Amerindian band councils must receive also greater powers and, when possible, larger territories.