Turbulent 20s follow the chaos of 2019

The year will be crucial in the history of the UK and comes as we have lost the ability to debate and disagree

When future historians look back on 2019, it will be studied as a year of chaos and division which changed the political landscape, public debate and the very nature of democracy in the UK forever.

But will the scholars of, say, 2050 look on this turbulent end to the 10s as a positive or negative milestone in our history?

That very much depends on the next 12 months.

Sitting, as The Scotsman does, firmly in the Remain camp, our fear is that Brexit will inevitably change Scotland and Britain for the worse.

We believe leaving the family of the EU is a mistake and nothing that has happened since the 2016 vote has caused us to revise this position. In the short-term, that is undeniably true, at least from an economic point of view.

Whether we go from a relatively small period of disruption to longterm decline however rests on Boris Johnson’s shoulders. He has committed to securing a trade deal on a perilously short timescale by the end of 2020.

The UK is about to enter the most complicated part of the Brexit negotiations – the last three and a half years of chaos have merely been an appetiser – and plans to do this in less than a third of the time. It is either a masterstroke of negotiation or an example of reckless bravado in a politician who now believes he is invincible. Many others have held that belief throughout history, all have found to their cost that they are not.

His success or lack of it will have deep implications for the future of the union as the calls for a second Scottish independence referendum grow and nationalist MPS now outnumbering unionists for the first time in Northern Ireland. The stakes for the Prime Minister – and the country – really could not be higher. Thrown into the mix is our now seeming inability to debate, disagree and compromise over anything. Social media polarises opinion, turns fake news into fact, and acts as an ever-increasing echochamber which confirms prejudices without challenging perceptions.

Politicians have simply picked up the ball and run with it leaving us with a choice between extremes, and a vacant centre ground.

So will historians look on 2019 as the beginning of a decade of fresh division which leads to the break-up of the UK – or as a blip on the timeline of the nation? By this time next year, we may know the answer. Hold on tight.