The thing about Shetland and Orkney though is that they're now majority British or Scottish, a far-cry from what they were in the early 15th century. Now-a-days only several hundred individuals on Shetland identify as not-British, white ([url=http://www.shb.scot.nhs.uk/board/equality/RaceEqualityScheme20082011.pdf]page 18, paragraph 1[/url]. The same can be said for Orkney where at least [url=http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/06/22110457/05107]less than .5% of the region identifies as "minority white"[/url].

They'd be more readily supportive of Scottish succession than going to Norway or Sweden. The Scots are far less removed in the UK that the old isolated Nordic communities. And from what I've gathered, the bid to join Norway by either Orkney or Shetland is more ironic in the face of another Scottish independence Referendum. And the celebration of Norway's constitution looks to be like how we celebrate St Patrick's day in the US: for one day we get to pretend to be Irish for probably ironic reasons.

It's not to say the US will ever join Ireland, or Boston will succeed from the Union because it's so Irish.