- Nineteen prisoners use cutlery to break out of cells at Winchester prison
- France wants progress in Ukraine before Russia returns to G7
- Italy president begins talks to seek way out of government crisis
- Italian PM expected to resign as political chaos deepens
- Russia says US cruise missile test ‘regrettable’
- Kremlin - No date set for Normandy talks on Ukraine despite Macron meeting
- Egypt court hands out 6 death sentences on terror charges
- Putin says Russian nuclear explosion poses no threat
- Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests
- Gran Canaria wildfire triggers evacuation of thousands of people
- PM Johnson calls on Germany and France to compromise on Brexit
- Sudan's ex-president Bashir arrives at corruption trial
Tuesday, 13 April 2021_Boris Johnson is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, that is a fact. But according to a senior former British civil servant, Philip Rycroft, the COVID-19 pandemic has seeded the idea of a prime minister “who speaks for England alone".
In a study looking at the issues of devolution from inside UK state machinery, the former permanent secretary to the Brexit department stated that “the 300-year-old union is in deep peril" due to no defined strategy by Westminister.
The crisis has been exacerbated amid growing momentum for a second referendum on Scottish independence with a recent poll showing that pro-independence parties would win 79 of the 129 seats in Holyrood in the upcoming elections.
Moreover there is also a growing independence movement in wales that will add to Westminster woes.
Meanwhile in Northern Ireland there has been a serious deterioration of relations between the nationalist and loyalist communities following the implementation of the Brexit deal, which have resulted in some of the worst street violence to have taken place in years.
The report co-authored by Prof Michael Kenny claimed it was political decision-making made by Westminster mixed with lack of consultation with dissolved governments and confused messaging that has caused widening divisions. With Rycroft claiming that Boris Johnson “muscular brand of unionism” had asserted the value of the union rather than demonstrating it.
The warnings laid out in this new report are stark. Unless there is a change in strategy from Downing Street. The future of united kingdom made up of four nations England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is in doubt.
Your Comment