Dave > wrote:

>Mark Thorson wrote:

>> Statehood is granted on a politically balanced basis,
>> for example Hawaii (Democrat) and Alaska (Republican)
>> were admitted at about the same time. The current
>> best prospects for states 51 and 52 are admission of
>> Puerto Rico (Democrat) and Guam (Republican).
>>
>> How would we balance admission of the UK? Also,
>> note that we probably could only admit England.
>> Scotland and Wales would probably use the
>> opportunity to declare independence. Beats me
>> what Northern Ireland would do.

>Good point you make here, but becoming part of the USA has been
>mentioned several times in the last disastrous few years of this
>government, by some very well respected news paper writers in the UK.

The trend is in the opposite direction: last night, there was
a benefit concert here in Berkeley supporting the growing
Hawaiian independence movement. Also, the South wants to
secede again, and many folks want historic Aztlan to
revanch to Mexico.

I don't think any of these is likely to happen soon, however
if a majority of Hawaiians want to split off I'm not sure
there'd be much opposition.

Steve