1 Introduction

2 The evolution of an old country

3 The new social geography of
Britain and Ireland

4 The implications of the
Amsterdam Treaty and EMU

5 A new political landscape

6 Conclusions and policy
recommendations

Simon Partridge is a London-based political analyst and writer. He is author of Beyond Nationalism in These Islands (1996).In collaboration with Professor Richard Kearney, he was at the forefront in promoting the idea of a Nordic Council-type “Council of the Isles,” now embodied in the Good Friday Agreement.

Executive summary

• The Labour Government has embarked on an ambitious programme of reforming the UK, but this process is piecemeal and there is a lack of overall strategy.
  
• A major issue that the Government has not adequately addressed is that of "Britishness". Increasingly it is seen as inextricably linked with a unitary, over-centralised state, biased towards the Home Counties. It is assumed that, with the demise of empire and after devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the UK will inevitably divide itself into its "natural" nation-states. This pamphlet takes a different view. The Union does need to be reformed and decentralised, but the concept of Britishness as an overarching civic identity – a common citizenship – needs to be enhanced as the population becomes increasingly diverse.
  
• Nearly 5 million people living in Britain have at least one Irish parent and thus automatically qualify for Irish citizenship. Over 20 per cent of the Welsh population, and 8 per cent of the Scottish, was born in England. More than 740, 000 Scottish born people live in England, equivalent to 16 per cent of the current population of Scotland. Around 5 per cent of all those born in Ireland live in London. Three million plus are of South Asian and Caribbean origin.
  
• The 19th-century rhetoric of "One Nation" must be superseded by a more precise language recognising the diversity of the nations and regions of the UK, and giving explicit recognition of its multi-national, multi-ethnic, multicultural nature.
  
• "British" should be reserved exclusively as a civic description and not linked specifically with any ethnic identity – and certainly not elided with the English elite of the metropolitan south-east.
  
• We must now learn to think of our islands as "British–Irish"or "Irish–British", rather than simply the British Isles. Feelings of ethnic belonging, while given due recognition, must be detached from the notion of citizenship.
  
• The present asymmetry between the devolved assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the regions of England, if it lasts for any length of time, is likely to lead to a backlash in England, further encouraging separatist nationalism. To counter this there needs to be a programme of rolling devolution to the regions of England. The Government should signal its intentions much more clearly in this area.
  
• The new Wales might well be considered as a constitutional laboratory for the development of regional assemblies in England. Less than 3 million people will shortly have over 6, 000 directly elected representatives, serving at national, regional, unitary local authority and community (parish) council levels.
  
• The British–Irish Council, set up by the Good Friday Agreement, linking both islands, is a crucial innovation for improving British–Irish relations. If it is to be effective, it needs to be complemented as soon as possible by a strong inter-parliamentary body, and open to civic input.
  
• European Union spatial plans have had a considerable influence on the regionalisation of the UK and are now starting to influence the Irish Republic. The Amsterdam Treaty is likely to increase EU influence. Further moves to a two level, truly federal Europe seem predicated on a break from thetop-down "functionalist" approach which has dominated the European project so far. The EU Committee of the Regions may eclipse the European Parliament and evolve towards the upper federal chamber of a "united region states of Europe".
  
• The British and Irish states will be radically altered by the current reforms in these islands and the EU. A reformed and devolved British Union, allied to the proposals of the Good Friday Agreement, offers the best hope of allowing satisfying expression to the now complex identities of the peoples of these islands, while recognising their common links. It can provide a political structure of equality in which their sometimes conflicting claims can be reconciled. By resolving and transcending the national identity question, this also offers the prospect of a positive relationship with the Irish Republic.
  
• Our islands could well become an example of how to organise the sustainable, pluralist, multi-level European polity of the next millennium.

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