ACCORDING TO prime minister Gordon Brown, "when secessionist forces are loudly at work it is not the time for silence and passivity. We must be resolute in defending the Union and argue against those who put it at risk". Broadcaster Jeremy Paxman believes the United Kingdom is "like a failing marriage", with little passion left to hold England and Scotland together. Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond says that with Scottish independence "England would lose a surly lodger and gain a good neighbour". In addition, the Lord Chancellor, Jack Straw, said yesterday that plans for political reform are "part of the much wider programme towards a new constitutional settlement. They will strengthen the role of Parliament in our democracy."
It is clear from these remarks that the UK is in the middle of a major debate about its political and constitutional future. It is surprising how little Ireland figures in the argument - a matter of increasing concern for Northern unionists. Northern Ireland was not mentioned in yesterday's Daily Telegraph article by Mr Brown, in which he went on to say that the 10-year-old devolution experience "simply acknowledges the dual identities: Welsh and British, Scottish and British too". He argues that the UK maximises solutions to transnational challenges, optimises common values of liberty, fairness and tolerance and creates a common citizenship based on them. It is to be deepened by his government's programme of constitutional reform.
Scotland is the central issue for Mr Brown and most of the other protagonists in this debate. Mr Salmond's party has launched a "national conversation" on its future, which it wants to see end up as an independent state. He has skilfully channelled the political agenda towards that goal, without necessarily making it the determining factor in its daily politics. In response, the Scottish Labour Party, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have launched their own inquiry into devolution and what supplementary powers it may require, which Mr Brown is determined to keep an eye on from London. Issues like taxation, Scottish MPs' voting rights at Westminster and control over oil resoures and defence facilities are steadily becoming more neuralgic as the arguments proceed.
There is plenty of evidence for Mr Paxman's belief that Britain is drifting apart politically. In England there is a growing dissatisfaction with Scotland's apparently privileged budgetary position, coupled with demands for greater English autonomy. Mr Brown and Mr Straw see constitutional renewal and the creation of a new sense of Britishness as the best way to counter these trends. But without a readiness to decentralise political power much more than they have so far contemplated - effectively in a federal direction - they find it difficult to garner political support for constitutional reform. Alongside these difficulties they have now encountered another stream of anger, from Northern Ireland unionists who say they are being overlooked and disregarded as British citizens and their loyalty is being taken too much for granted.