The United Kingdom is made up of four quite different states each reflecting both a unity and a difference.
Wales on the extreme western coast was the place where ancient British people were driven by the invading Angles and Vikings. Scotland was a fiercely independent nation as reflected in the film Braveheart, which ultimately became subsumed into England in the reign of King James. The north of Ireland was separated from the southern part of the Island after the Easter Rising and the subsequent winning of independence under the Taoiseach Eamon de Valera.
I had occasion to visit all four nations on a holiday some years ago driving from my home in the English Midlands through Wales to take a ferry to Ireland before heading into Northern Ireland to take a ferry to Scotland and eventually driving south again into England.
It is clear that if you are visiting Wales for example that you are experiencing a very different and quite individual part of the United Kingdom, the British Isles, than if you are visiting Scotland and the differences go deeper than the signs in the Welsh language or, in Scotland in Gaelic which can come as a shock to someone who is used to and is expecting English to be the lingua franca.
Over the past few years the nations that make up the United Kingdom have flexed not only their linguistic muscles but their political muscles also. Currently Wales is the only country in the United Kingdom still voting for and electing a Labour Government, a Government that remains subject to the limitations and restrictions imposed by the Governing party in England. Meanwhile the Scottish National Party is the dominant political party in Scotland, again whilst subject to the political colour of the Tory Party in England.
Northern Ireland continues to have strained relationships with its immediate neighbour in the south which is not only independent but a strong member of the European Union. Brexit has created a tension between North and South and the English Government with the possible re-introduction of a hard border causing an escalation of conflict and threatening the Good Friday Peace Agreement by the introduction of a border in the Irish Sea.
Exploring the potential for a ‘convivial relationship’ between these different nations will require a considerable exploration of not only the potential for further devolvement of political reponsibilities but the possible introduction of a federal relationship. This carries an implicit challenge to the Tory Party the official title of which is the Conservative and Unionist Party. This challenge will be deeper and stronger if as some are suggesting that the English Regions should also be further devolved.
Pauline Bryan a Labour peer and convener of the Red Paper Collective, writing in the Morning Star (June 23rd 2021) wrote:
Devolved administrations, elected mayors and council leaders need to combine to resist the imposition of unacceptable policies and mobilise alongside the trade unions and campaigning groups to build solidarity across borders. This should prefigure a federal approach laying the ground for a radical restructuring of the British state.
In the article Lady Bryan commented further:
Across Britain there have been renewed discussions within and between the nations and regions.
In Wales in January 2021 there was the launch of We the People: The case for Radical Federalism. Supported by the Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, it made the case for the shared governance of the UK.
It argued that radical constitutional reform is a necessity. It stated that the people of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England should be offered the opportunity to make a positive choice to envision, and contribute to the creation of a modern, collaborative, distributed and open democracy.
In Scotland the Red Paper Collective has continued to make the case for progressive federalism. It argues that any constitutional arrangement must ensure the redistribution of wealth throughout the UK, be built on democratic control of the economy — as without that real power is not devolved — and be based on the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity.
Alongside this radical review of the relationships of the four nations there is a recognition that the hereditary and unelected House of Lords, described by one Bishop, himself a member, as ‘The best club in Town (London)’ but which neither reflects nor represents the ‘four nations’.
Equally its relevance to the major connurbations of the UK now represented by Labour Party elected Mayors is key.
The general view is that elected Mayors such as the Mayors of Manchester and North of the Tyne are reccognising that their areas have much more in common and will have even more in common, with the devolved regions, the most interesting aspect of Brexit is not simply the separation of the UK from Europe but the potential breaking up of the UK. Hopefully this will be achieved with the sound of Ballot Papers being dropped into Ballot Boxes than the sound of gunfire.
The United Kingdom is essentially ‘Londoncentric’ and it is possible to see how the further from London which is the seat of Government, the economic driver, the financial centre and the centre of Art and Culture for the nation(s) as a whole, the more marginalised the regions and the devolved states might feel.
The argument for a federal relationship with local centres for governance such as the Welsh and Scottish devolved governments extended to regions, the North East, the Midlands, the North West, the South West, the South East electing a Senate to hold together the federation is an argument that might well lead to greater conviviality, to a more convivial national conversation.
If our understanding of ‘conviviality’ can be applied to nation states and devolved regions it might be possible to demonstrate how nation states can become more democratic, more convivial and agents of human well being and flourishing.
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