United Federation of Britain?

UK Devolved Nations and English Regions

The dystopia that has afflicted the UK since the 2015 general election has given us the Brexit ultimatum, a Covid-19 debacle, two unscheduled general elections and three prime ministers. It is not surprising that this has incited the devolved nations to attempt to unshackle themselves from England. The United Kingdom survives in a constitutional vacuum that has become a literal and functional anachronism.

Is it appropriate in the twenty-first century to govern through an unwritten constitution that is expressed through archaic concepts like the Kingdom and the House of Lords? Particularly when responsibility for constitutional affairs and the devolution consequences of leaving the EU is vested in the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a position presently held by Michael Gove, whose tendency to switch opinions is tidal. 

We are approaching the witching hour when we could be overtaken by events and the government seems to be clueless in converting their policy mantras into realistic solutions. The prime minister and his party have an antipathy to reforming the governance of the country that may soon be formerly known as the United Kingdom. Surely it is time to re-interpret and consolidate the democratic principles that define our systems of governance.

There have been stirrings from former Prime Ministers and other political influencers about the need for a Constitutional Convention similar to the one that helped shape the Scottish Parliament in the 1990s or to establish a Royal Commission to consider the constitution. The common presumption is that the UK should adopt some form of a federal constitution. The problem with the suggested approaches is in both the timing, they usually take several years, and the fact that any constitutional reforms need to extend well beyond Westminster, which is merely a middleman in a far more complex set of democratic networks. 

Four other levels of governance are required to be examined in any review of the constitution: international organisations; devolved nations and regions - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the regions of England*; local councils in each of the four nations; and the neighbourhood bodies that despite promises of subsidiarity have been woefully neglected and underutilised by the UK and devolved governments as well as by the councils. 

At each of these levels, the UK government needs to accept that it must share or cede power to influence or mobilise more appropriate levels of governance. The elusive search for greater sovereignty is an outmoded belief in a world where international agreements and global companies transcend the authority of individual nations. Just as important is the imperative for devolving power to regions and councils, whilst enshrining this transfer of power in a written constitution.

The prospect of developing a progressive and relevant constitution for the UK is likely to be resisted by a Westminster government that would want to control the options for all the levels of governance through the prism of Westminster. What is required is for practitioners at each level of governance to apply their understanding and expertise to make draft proposals from their perspective. These should be evaluated by engaging with the people, communities and businesses that are to be governed. There are well-tested methods for including the public through, for example, a citizen assembly in Ireland or crowdsourcing in Iceland. The trick in designing a new constitution should be that democratic principles are applied when proposing changes to democracy itself.

There should be a comprehensive re-examination of the purpose and function at each level of democracy. Instead of a top-down review, each level should be examined contemporaneously with a brief to report within a fixed timescale. This would provide a set of what will become interlocking levels of governance and allow a more considered appraisal and negotiation of how the interface between the levels can be defined with transparency and clarity. 

The most important condition for achieving a new constitution is that the proposals from each level of governance are designed without any presumption that Westminster knows best. This will ensure that our future democracy is based on parity of esteem. A future federal system of governance for the UK should seek to be both sustainable and as seamless as possible. The task of fitting the levels together and enshrining nations/regions, councils and neighbourhood bodies into the written constitution should be carried out with a commitment to subsidiarity. 

The different levels of democratic governance in a federal constitution should not replicate the present top-down governance structure and lust for pyramidal power by Westminster. This is what has blunted the UK's capacity to cope with change in the face of global, digital and social media influences. What is needed is for the different levels of a federal governance structure to nest together like a set of Russian Dolls.

The geographic entities in England of regions, councils and communities have evolved over the years and do not always equate well with the spheres of influence proscribed by labour markets, transport links, and other affiliations. The Redcliffe-Maud Commission considered this in 1969 but the Heath Government of 1970 refused to implement these proposals and instead, there has been a Spatchcock approach to the reform of Councils. Undoubtedly there is some justification for moving to a unitary system of local democracy shaped by local knowledge rather than imposed by central government.

There is an argument that if the English regions are to have devolved powers they should also have coherent boundaries that reflect regional realities. The present 8 English regions are significantly larger than the devolved nations with an average size of 6.254 million people. This compares with Scotland, 5.463 million, Wales, 3.1653 million and Northern Ireland, 1.893 million,  an average size of 3.503 million for the devolved nations.

The English standard regions would benefit from a redrawing to achieve more parity with the devolved nations. This could be achieved by splitting the largest region, the South East, into a north and south region with the north taking in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire from the present Anglia region. The south region would include Hampshire, Surrey, East and West Sussex and Kent. There is also a case for creating an additional region around Bristol by combining Bristol and Bath, North Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Dorset. Cornwall, Devon and South Somerset would remain as a smaller but well-defined region. This would create a federal structure including Greater London of 14 nations/regions averaging about 5 million people.