Federalism, Union and Secession

About the Author: David Melding

David Melding was a Member of the Welsh Senedd between May 1999 and April 2021 and served as its Deputy Presiding Officer between 2011 and 2016. He is an acknowledged authority on constitutional reform and is the author of ‘Will Britain Survive Beyond 2020?’ and ‘The Reformed Union: The UK as a Federation’. He is a member of the Federal Trust’s Council.

In this new essay for the Federal Trust, our Council member and former member of the Welsh Senedd David Melding argues that federal structures are the best way of preserving the constitutional and geographical integrity of the United Kingdom.

In a federal UK, powers and responsibilities would be transparently and consensually distributed. There would be none of the struggling for power and sovereignty between different national institutions that makes for the present unstable state of the UK. A federal UK would also be an opportunity to establish coherent ground rules for future constitutional referendums, in sharp contrast to the ad hoc nature of the Brexit and Scottish referendums.

Such major decisions on the future of the state, decisions also with major international implications, should not be taken carelessly or without a thorough consciousness of their consequences.