The Union and the state - Contested visions of the UK’s future - Ciaran Martin

The Union and the state Contested visions of the UK’s future Ciaran Martin IfG–Bennett foreword In February 2022, the Institute for Government and the Bennett Institute for Public Policy launched a Review of the UK Constitution, to offer an evidence-based and non-partisan analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the constitution, and where necessary make recommendations for change. [...] Narrative of the Union If the structures of union have dominated the constitutional politics of the UK over the past three decades, the narrative of the Union is an under-analysed part of the UK’s contested constitutional debate. [...] The Brexit vote itself, and the final resolution of how to implement it after years of tension, showed that some (in the case of the popular vote) or all (in the case of the 2019 general election, which framed the terms of exit) of the devolved territories could be entirely ignored on issues of paramount importance.28 The idea of the UK as, in law, a unitary state may have been reinforced by the S. [...] And in the meantime, particularly in Scotland, the number of people describing themselves as ‘Scottish only’ or ‘more Scottish than British’ remains concerningly high for unionists, especially the figures for young people.30 Statecraft of the Union If the balance of powers between London and the devolved capitals remains largely stable, and the ability of the government machinery to direct the nat. [...] This was much to the surprise of the Welsh government.33 Even the arrangements for the post-crisis evaluation of the handling of the pandemic show the strains of the devolution settlement: there is a UK-wide inquiry; a separate one for Scotland; no separate inquiry for Wales and Northern Ireland; and nothing to stop the UK-wide inquiry from examining the actions of the Scottish government.