We can't let England ignore political division across the Union

The first of these conversations was with a friend in London, who confidently told me that whenever he was watching a news item that referred to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland he either turned the volume down, or turned the programme off. Although he is well aware of my politics and interests it did not seem to occur to him that making such a statement might be either inappropriate, or just offensive. His implication was that this is what a normal person in England would do, and I hate to admit it, but I think that my friend was probably right in making that assumption.

The second conversation was with the hosts of the Echo Chamber podcast, which is produced in Dublin, on which I am a guest about once a month. The start point for our conversation this month was my column in last week’s National, in which I offered five reasons why no one in Scotland should vote for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

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Not long after the discussion started, Tony Groves, who is one of the hosts, asked me whether there really would be a national General Election in the UK sometime in the next 12 months, or whether instead quite different elections might take place in each of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. I had no hesitation in suggesting that it was the second of these two options that was going to occur because I really have no doubt that this will be the case.

Two thoughts follow from these conversations. The first is on how inappropriate the Union is when it is so obvious that the majority of people in England treat it with contempt. They might think that they still have an absolute right to control what they presume to be their remaining provinces, but the reality is that they have not the slightest interest in what happens in any of these countries.

It is, therefore, inevitable that at some point this Union will fail. It simply cannot be otherwise. There is no evidence that the continuing rule of a location by a government that is not only indifferent to, but actually antagonistic towards the people of the place that it seeks to control can ever work in the long term. Those believing in Scottish independence from the UK should take heart from this. However long it takes for the breakdown of the Union to occur, it certainly will.

The second sentiment relates to the General Election. However it is looked at, devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland guarantees that this election cannot be on the same issues in those places as it is in England. Not only are the priorities and needs in each of these countries different from those in England, the ways in which people would wish those priorities be tackled and funded also differ considerably. Any party contesting this election that wants to pretend that they are playing by English rules, when the rules of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland actually apply deserves to be treated with contempt.

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Putting these thoughts together and standing back as someone who lives in England but who would like to see the splitting of the Union into four parts, this says something else to me. That is that whatever the differences between the parties seeking independence in each of these countries (and they do, of course, exist) there is incredibly good reason for them to co-operate to ensure that this message of difference between the countries in the Union is delivered collectively.

There is a common goal in rejecting rule from Westminster that is powerful, and ultimately about the creation of a common future that respects both similarities and differences, which is exactly what most in England refuse to do.