El Gordo on The Union

Gordon Brown on the Union.

More than a year ago I argued that a debate about the future of the United Kingdom was long overdue. I suggested that, unless we start to focus more on what unites us than we do on what divides us, there is a real risk that one day people will wake up and find that the benefits of the Union - which they had taken for granted for so long - had disappeared.

Actually, I think that the problem is really rather different. Many people have been looking at the benefits of the union: you'll find a large number of Englishmen thinking now that we get to pay the benefits and the Celtic Cousins get to receive them.

In recognition of this, 10 years ago we embarked on devolution - ensuring that the smaller nations that are part of the UK have more control over their own affairs. Devolution simply acknowledges the dual identities: Welsh and British, Scottish and British too.

And there is the reason why this re-evaluation has been going on. We can see that indeed the smaller nations have more control over their own affairs: but England and the English do not.

There is, of course, a simple solution to this, the creation of an English Parliament (and probably the upgrading of the Welsh Assembly's powers) so that each constituent nation has its own say on the matters that concern solely it. The Union dealing with those larger matters.

There's also an exceedingly simple reason why this will not in fact happen. Labour is most unlikely to ever get a majority in such an English Parliament: so, being good politicians they'll never vote for one.

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