29 09, 2020

Was the EU the Glue Holding the United Kingdom Together?

By |2020-10-27T15:34:40+00:00September 29th, 2020|Categories: 2020, Brexit, Devolution, Europe, Federalism, UK Constitution, Video|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Dr Andrew Blick, Reader in Politics and Contemporary History at King's College London, looks at the internal constitutional consequences of Brexit. He discusses how far the British Union has been held together by membership of the European Union and whether Brexit will lead to its break up. This talk was [...]

29 09, 2020

Brexit and Northern Ireland – a Different United Kingdom

By |2020-11-16T12:34:35+00:00September 29th, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Devolution, Europe, UK Devolution|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Northern Ireland will mark 100 years of its existence on the 3rd of May 2021. Meantime the Government of the Republic has launched a radical new policy calling for “A Shared Island”. This new emphasis on SHARING points to a United Ireland as an aspiration rather than a policy. In [...]

22 07, 2020

How far can the Northern Ireland Protocol limit Brexit’s economic damage?

By |2020-07-22T09:45:01+00:00July 22nd, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Devolution, Europe, Trade, Trade & Financial services, UK Devolution|Tags: , , |

Photo credit: Albert Bridge (Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 2.0)   The Brexit project entails much collateral damage. The most prominent potential victim of UK departure from the EU to date – though others will no doubt become increasingly difficult to ignore – has been the island of Ireland. [...]

16 07, 2020

Hard Brexit plus Covid equals Divorce?

By |2020-07-16T13:18:15+00:00July 16th, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Devolution, Scotland, UK Constitution, UK Devolution|Tags: , , , , , |

President Clinton admonished us that it was “the economy, stupid”. Perhaps, in the current febrile situation this should be amended to being “it’s the politics, stupid”.  Faced with a 25% drop in GDP in the UK in quarter 2, this might seem surprising to some. But take a closer look. [...]

13 07, 2020

Scotland’s England Problem

By |2020-07-13T10:29:51+00:00July 13th, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Devolution, Federalism, Federalism, Scotland, UK Constitution, UK Devolution|Tags: , , , |

That the UK’s union of four nations is under strain is not new to anyone who has been paying attention. But the combined impacts of Brexit, Covid-19 and the Conservative government under Boris Johnson are driving an increasing wedge between Scotland and the rest of the UK – or, more [...]

10 06, 2020

Constitutional options for Northern Ireland: a discussion

By |2020-06-10T13:21:33+00:00June 10th, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Devolution, Europe, Europe, UK Devolution|Tags: , , |

No version of Brexit avoids disruption for Northern Ireland and the peace process. Furthermore, it is inherent in the logic of UK departure from the European Union that, far from seeking to minimise this impact, it should augment the risks to the region. The concept of sovereignty – however defined [...]

26 05, 2020

Federal states deal best with the pandemic

By |2020-06-04T11:19:34+00:00May 26th, 2020|Categories: Blog, Coronavirus, Devolution, Federalism, Federalism, Scotland|Tags: , , , |

by David GowEditor of Sceptical.scot, Senior Adviser at Social Europe and Senior Adviser at Acumen Public Affairs. He is former European Business Editor of The Guardian and worked for The Scotsman and London Weekend Television. 26th May 2020 Federal Germany has won substantial plaudits around the world, not least in other parts of Europe, for its comparative [...]

15 05, 2020

Covid-19 and a Fracturing UK

By |2020-06-04T11:53:20+00:00May 15th, 2020|Categories: Coronavirus, Devolution, Scotland, Views from the Federal Trust|Tags: , , |

by Dr Kirsty HughesDirector, Scottish Centre on European Relations 13th May 2020 This article was first published by the Scottish Centre on European Relations The shift in England to a more substantial easing of lockdown restrictions, while Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales stick to a slower route and to the [...]

21 04, 2020

Scotland’s Shifting Politics of the Covid-19 Crisis

By |2020-06-10T16:51:27+00:00April 21st, 2020|Categories: Coronavirus, Devolution, Scotland, Views from the Federal Trust|Tags: , , , |

Image © Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (Licence terms)   As the Covid-19 crisis continues, the UK may be heading for one of the worst outcomes in terms of deaths across Europe. Criticism is rightly mounting of the UK government’s handling of the crisis, not least of the fatally lost weeks [...]

14 02, 2020

Scotland’s Shifting Politics in the Face of Brexit

By |2020-06-23T15:55:45+00:00February 14th, 2020|Categories: Devolution, Europe, Scotland, UK Constitution, UK Devolution|Tags: , , , , |

by Dr Kirsty HughesDirector, Scottish Centre on European Relations 12th February 2019 Brexit day has come and gone. There were Saltires, EU flags and crowds at the Scottish parliament. But while everything changed as the UK left the EU, is it, for now, the case that nothing has changed in [...]

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