by Prof. Colin Talbot, Emeritus Professor of Government at the University of Manchester, and Dr. Carole Talbot, Research Associate, University of Cambridge ‘Levelling Up’ is back in the headlines with the move of Michael Gove to what has now become the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. One [...]
“Take back control” was one of the main battle-cries of Brexit. Underpinning it was the notion that the UK had ceded its sovereignty to the EU and was no-longer an ‘independent’ country. We will leave aside the issue of whether or not Brexit really represents a return of sovereignty to [...]
In Scotland, there is a real sense of its politics and the constitutional debate moving into a new phase as the aftermath of the pro-independence SNP and Green parties’ success in the elections sinks in. Turnout, at 63%, was the highest it has been since the first elections to the [...]
In May 2021 Northern Ireland will mark the hundredth year of its existence. These years have been marked by long periods of turmoil rather than any sense of contentment or stability. There has been and remains an atmosphere of unease. Governments in Northern Ireland have been marked by periods of [...]
Federalism is best defined as a system in which constitutional authority is divided between a ‘federal’ tier of government and a set of territorial ‘states’. It is a comprehensive and symmetrical model in which the entirety (or almost the entirety) of the country is covered by states, which have identical [...]
With Covid gridlock in Kent, chaotic borders have arrived earlier than expected, although stockpiling ahead of the end of the transition was already causing queues and a glimpse into the UK’s difficult post-Brexit future. As talks and haggling continue over fishing, one thing is clear: deal or no deal, four [...]
by Sam Whimster Professor Sam Whimster is Deputy Director & Head of UK Futures Programme at Global Policy Institute; he is also Editor of Max Weber Studies. Andrew Adonis has recently argued that the present tensions disuniting Britain can be resolved by following the example of the Federal Republic [...]
“The fabric of democracy is always fragile everywhere because it depends on the will of citizens to protect it, and when they become scared, when it becomes dangerous for them to defend it, it can go very quickly.” (Margaret Atwood) The deadline for ending the “transitional” arrangements for Britain’s relations [...]
An atmosphere of crisis in Ireland north and south is dominating discussions of the future among seasoned observers and commentators there. It is occasioned by the impending decision on Brexit due to be made shortly ahead of the end of the transition period on 31 December. While the wider public [...]
The United Kingdom (UK) and what is now the European Union (EU) were intertwined for nearly half a century. Consequently, Brexit means more than the UK removing itself from the EU. It involves extracting the EU from the UK. The four years after the EU referendum of 23 June 2016 [...]
