Delusions of grandeur

There are some out there who simply do not get Britain's place in the world, they have this weird idea of Empire and Commonwealth that fits an ideal but bears no resemblance to the present. History is cyclable, nations rise and fall and new smarter or more aggressive nations take their place as powers. One hundred years is but the blink of an eye in history, yet Britain has moved from a world spanning empire to where we are now...
Mail.

Britain’s role as a world power could end if Scotland becomes independent, the man leading the fight to save the UK has warned.
Former Chancellor Alistair Darling, head of the campaign to stop Scotland breaking away, says other nations would seize the chance to punish what was left of a depleted Britain. And Britain would face the triple humiliation of being stripped of its status as a global, economic and European power.
In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Mr Darling said he was confident Scots will vote ‘No’ in September’s independence referendum.
He claims ‘tawdry’ Scottish Nationalist Party leader Alex Salmond is using ‘bullying’ tactics to silence opponents because he knows he faces defeat.

Britain is not a world power, we have some influence to be true, but our days as a real power ended in 1956 during the Suez crisis though the clues were there more or less from WW1. Now it may just be that Alistair Darling an utter failure as a Chancellor of the Exchequer is simply trying scare stories to get the Scots to remain as part of the United Kingdom but he really shouldn't play fast and loose with facts. The loss of Scotland will not be a major issue in the place of the rest of the UK's position in the world, they're only a nation of around five million and occupy a part of the UK that's by and large mostly useless. Their economy relies in part of civil servants in various departments and the naval base at Faslane. They have oil to be sure, but I rather suspect that they won't be able to do what they want with it in a similar manner to what Norway does owing to having to rebuild much of their economy from the ground up when the civil service jobs and the naval base move south because the UK government is not going to farm jobs out to foreign countries...
The UK itself is now tied to the corrupt and useless EU another pseudo alliance with delusions of grandeur, so the national powers we have are constantly undermined by EU diktats over-riding UK laws and powers. So no, we aren't a world power, we aren't a power at all as we've handed over sovereignty to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels and so Darling's claim is mere grandstanding. Scotland's leaving will neither strengthen us nor make us weaker, though it may save the UK that's left a bit of money.
One day perhaps the British will ally to form a country and an empire to be a power in the world, but don't get your hopes up, just remember Rome, Persia, Austro-Hungary, Spain, to mention but a few, all empires and all now with zero power and influence.