THE Union will come to an end in less than five years, celebrated Scottish scholar Tom Nairn has suggested.

One of Scotland’s greatest thinkers has long predicted the break up of the UK, but in an interview with Open Democracy, he has, for the first time, suggested a timescale.

Nairn, known for his 1977 book The Break-Up of Britain told interviewer, Adam Ramsey: “Within the next five years, in one form or another, break-up is likely to come about.”

He added: “What was once Great Britain, the British Empire, we’re struggling along to replace that with something else, with something new.

“Let’s go ahead, and see what comes out of the maelstrom.”

The writer Gerry Hassan, a keen follower of Nairn’s work, said the timescale was significant.

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He told The National: “The journey of Scotland to greater self-determination and the rise of the independence question has been over the last 50 years mapped and analysed by Tom Nairn, most comprehensively in his magnum opus, The Break-up of Britain, published in 1977.

“Nairn argued that a whole host of dynamics were leading to this break-up alongside Scotland: the Irish question, English nationalism, Europe and the anti-modern, undemocratic nature of the British state.

“All of these factors are in play in today’s world and for the first time Nairn has gone from predicting the slow death of the union to being specific about how long it has to survive and when the break-up he prophesied occurs.”

For his essay on the break up of the Union, Ramsey spoke to campaigners across the UK.

He said:“Over the past decade I’ve interviewed people from Derry to Norwich, Cardiff to Harris, Jerusalem to Madrid about the break up of Britain.

“But my conversations for this piece uncovered a new mood among those who want to leave the UK: calm confidence that the centre cannot hold.”