Magnificent Micro-nations: Part 1- The Hutt River Province

I love oddities; those little accidents of history, those quirks of fate, those FUBARs of constitutional law which lead to the bizarre and the ridiculous. That's why I find micronations hilariously appealing.

After all, how do you want to "stick it to the Man"? Sitting in your room with the curtains drawn, sullenly looking at your poster of Che Guevara while listening to Rage Against the Machine or the Manic Street Preachers? Or would you like to declare independence, cecede from the imperialist oppression of a recognised state, and lead your homeland (or in many case, just your house) to freedom, before going mad with power, losing sight of the revolutionary ideals you once held dear, and declaring yourself a monarch?

Oooh, the latter please!

In what will hoepfully becoming a whirlwind tour of the mini-states of the world, we shall begin with the Hutt River Province, a nation which heroically won its freedom from that most repressive of nations: Australia.

Fascist bastard!

In 1969, tired of being ground under the heel of the repressive Canberra regime, and suffering from the Aussie's stringent wheat quota, farmer Leonard Casley declared his farm independent. That might sound kind of pathetic, but remember this is an Australian farm, so it's 75 square kilometres - so its nearly half the size of Liechtenstein, and it dwarfs the Vatican.  And hey, they're independent, so why not Hutt River?

Hutt River's Mighty Territories (Image from Wikipedia)

So much, so crazy, and Australia obviously refused to recognise what the Feds no doubt assumed was simply a lunatic. The suits began legal proceedings, and all would have no doubt have ended in a heavy fine and a wordy judgment from an Australian court, had the Governor-General's office not referred to Mr. Casley as  "Administrator of the Hutt River Province" - which, under the terms of the Royal Perogative (the G-G represents the British monarch, don't forget), meant Mr. Casley now represented the official administration governing Hutt River.

Mr. Casley promptly did what we all would, and declared himself His Royal Highness Prince Leonard of Hutt, which had the dual benefit of being both ridiculously grand, and, under the terms of Commonwealth law, prevents him being prosecuted in Australian courts. So bye-bye Australian Tax Office.

Australia did what any repressive regime would do, and cut off HRH's post, which meant that King Leonard's copy of "Monarchs Monthly" had to be passed through the Canadian Postal Service (obviously, the New Zealanders were under diplomatic pressure not to provide this service).

Since then, the Hutt River Province has ticked along quite merrily, forming its own Diplomatic Intelligence Service, seeking foreign business opportunities in Dubai, and generally gettin up the nose of the Aussies.

You have to admire the brass neck of this micronation (hey, the country has a Prince Wayne!)

The only disappointment is that I was certain that the Hutt River Province would be ruled by this guy:

Send the Aussies to the Sarlacc!

The Strange Nature of Scottish Nationalism

Liechtenstein's few travelling football fans (if they have any) must have been pretty shocked on Tuesday night when the Scottish fans packing out Hampden Park in Glasgow began booing the tiny monarcy's national anthem. What could have gone through the Alpine-dwellers' minds, one wonders: had Scotland fought a bloody war with the miniscule state that history had entirely forgotten? When Scots refer to the "Auld Enemy", are they actually speaking about Liechtenstein?

In fact, the lads from the Lilliputian land were on the wrong end of a misunderstanding. Unfortunately, Liechtenstein's national anthem has the same tune as "God Save the Queen", and once the first strains of a musical piece more readily associated with the actual "Auld Enemy" began to reverberate around Hampden, the inevitable ensued. Although comic, the incident does highlight the strange nature of Scottish nationalism, and how a nation which has played such a vital role in Britain's rise as an imperial power can still have such a pathological hatred of their, in fact, fellow statesmen, if not fellow countrymen.

The apparent contradictions in Scottish nationalism mount the deeper you get - like Ireland, Scotland plays host to a large number of Loyal Orange Lodges, and has close ties with the Unionist community in Northern Ireland. Yet it is also a nation slowly pushing towards independence, led by the Scottish National Party (SNP) under its leader, Alex Salmond. This same Mr. Salmond can demand Scottish independence as the panacea for the ills of his nation, and those of the wider UK, yet can also decry the British government's decision to merge its Scottish regiments, rather than retaining each as an independent entity.

Looking at the mess we here in Ireland have made of our independence, one does wonder whether any small nation can survive, distinct and apart, under the weight of economic pressures and globalised culture today. If the Scot's ever do get to go it alone, it is well worth them remembering that fiscal responsibility (admittedly, a stereotypically Scottish attribute) is key - after all, the Union with England came about following a disastrous investment in a colonial adventure gone bad.