The UK’s Uncertain Future
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058241238186 |
| Author | Michael Kenny |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
12POLITICAL INSIGHT•MARCH 2024
The historic vote to leave the
European Union in September
2016 sparked a series of political
crises that brought into question
the UK’s governing institutions and the
nature of its territorial constitution. Rising
tensions, and some open conflicts between
Scottish and Welsh administrations and
successive British governments peppered
this period, and added to the sense
of constitutional turmoil and political
turbulence. Various polls suggested that
support for the idea of independence from
the UK grew in both Scotland and Wales,
as the character and future of the UK’s own
internal Union once more moved into the
political foreground.
As part of a wider project examining the
implications of the UK’s decision to swap the
EU for its own ‘internal market’, I conducted
The UK’s
Uncertain Future
With Scottish nationalists on the retreat and power-sharing
returning to Northern Ireland, the UK union appears to be on
stabler ground than for many years. But any such unionist relief is
misplaced, writes Michael Kenny.
many interviews with members of both
Houses of Parliament in these years, and
with ocials working within the dierent
governments. What was most striking in
those disparate conversations was how
pessimistic many British unionists were about
the Union’s prospects, and how uncertain
most were about what the UK’s asymmetrical
system of devolution meant for its future.
Contradictory responses
The response of British government to
post-Brexit constitutional tensions has
been uncertain, and at times downright
contradictory. During his premiership, Boris
Johnson vacillated between the desire
© Peter Morrison / Alamy Stock Photo
Political Insight March 2024.indd 12Political Insight March 2024.indd 1219/02/2024 09:3119/02/2024 09:31
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