Reaching near saturation with the current political debate on the U.K and its apparent imminent disintegration, I have been left asking why we have let ourselves get into such a constitutional mess? Since labour’s introduction of devolution, we have been trying to set up regional governments to represent the four nations, which make up this country at present. Yet one of these nations, England, has been systematically unrepresented.

Many countries in Europe such as Spain or Germany, are equally divided by strong regional identites of language and culture and have implemented a full federalist structure in which all the internal nations are accounted for within the larger framework. To let Catalans vote on Castillian matters and deny Castille or the Basque Country its own regional assembly would be unheard of. Yet the failure of this Labour government to impliment this in Britain has led to a level of resentment and hostility within the 4 nations, particularly within England, which itself will only help further divide and undermine the U.K. It may be that Gordon Brown’s rally cry for Unionism, ironic coming from a party which has done so much to dismantle the U.K in the last ten years, may be the kiss of death for the Union. He insists on it staying the same but denies England an assembly. Like with the reforms of the House of Lords, Labour has again dismantled an institution without putting back anything in its place. Its iconoclasm has come back to haunt it on both accounts.

Filed under: constitution, scotland, ukpolitics on January 19th, 2007