Long Read: The possible break-up of the United Kingdom

Long Read: The possible break-up of the United Kingdom The possible break-up of the United Kingdom Despite Boris Johnson’s assertion that the country would ‘prosper mightily’ even without UK-EU trade agreement, concern about this prospect strengthened as the possibility of a no-deal exit loomed larger. [...] Even so, over the past decade, a series of events – economic austerity, Brexit and the Covid-19 crisis – have repeatedly lifted the veil on the UK’s record of constitutional failure and ambiguity. [...] Established on the basis of a very narrow majority, devolution now appears to be the settled will of the people of Wales. [...] After the referendum, Brexit focused unprecedented attention on the region, particularly on the ‘issue’ of the border on the island of Ireland. [...] In the search for a cure, the tendency is to double-down on the causes of fiasco and constitutional fracture – and in so doing to deepen the constitution’s disrepair.