How Britain Ends by Gavin Esler

Gavin Esler’s latest book is intelligent, interesting and, like many thoughtful works, sometimes irritating.

He observes that Boris Johnson, winning with only 43 per cent of the vote, was rejected by 57 per cent of voters. On the other hand he seems sure Nicola Sturgeon speaks for Scotland even though the SNP was rejected by 55 per cent of voters.

That the Union is in trouble is undeniable. It is not only that fewer

Scots are comfortable with dual ScottishBritish identity. It is also, he argues, the surge of English nationalism that is diluting England’s sense of Britishness. In a calm atmosphere the realisation that England and Britain are not identical might make constitutional reform possible, so that we arrived at some form of federal or confederal UK. But the atmosphere is not calm and one reason is the extreme form of Brexit chosen by the Government. This has soured relations between England and both Scotland and Northern Ireland, the two parts of the UK that voted Remain.

Esler, like many, thinks Scottish independence likely. However he hopes it may yet be averted by remodelling the UK as a federal or confederal state. Any federation would be unbalanced, England having more than fourfifths of its population. You might seek to remedy this with London a devolved city-state which, economically, it already comes close to being, and making a northern English city, say York, the federal capital, equivalent to Washington DC.

Indeed, if you are seeking federation as a means of preserving a looser union with