The Union and the ‘English question’

Sir Ivor Jennings, writing in the context of decolonization in the 1950s, observed that, ‘before you can decide how the people are to govern themselves, you must first decide who are the people’. The primordial question that any new British constitutional settlement must answer, therefore, is whether the Union is to continue, and if so which nations are to be included in it.

We should not prejudge this question. There is no reason to assume that the United Kingdom will, can or should continue in its current shape. The route to constitutional refoundation might well pass through the reunification of Ireland and Scottish independence. The Union was built by and for the Empire, and it is difficult to say, in a postimperial age, what the United Kingdom is for anymore. It would not be unreasonable for the Scots and Northern Irish, and perhaps even the Welsh, to conclude (each in their own ways and for their own good reasons) that the constitutional future they desire no longer involves a union with England. That need not be seen as a disaster. It may be a natural next step. If so, the priority is to ensure that independence is achieved in a peaceful, orderly and democratic way, and that friendly post-independence relations are maintained. After all, there is nothing quite so in keeping with the best British constitutional traditions as a managed path to independence.

In any case, any constitutional renewal project must recognize that the United Kingdom is neither a homogenous ‘nation state’ nor an undifferentiated ‘unitary state’, but a complex ‘Union state’ made up of distinct nations. It is a messy amalgam of two kingdoms, a principality and a dismembered province, forged together by civil wars, bribery and dynastic wrangling. It contains two established churches, three legal systems, four legislatures, and several national cultures and identities. Our official lives are bound up in this British ‘Union state’, into which our several proximate but distinct nations are absorbed. Thus we have a United Kingdom anthem, but only English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh folk songs. We have United Kingdom passports, but only English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh literature.