A strong Union needs English voices

As the TV debates made clear, the future of the Union hangs on perceptions of the self interests of the Scottish people. Britain’s future as a country, identity or constitutional reality has played little role in the arguments north of the border. English voices and interests have been excluded; not just from the start of the referendum campaign but for almost as long as people have campaigned for devolution or independence.

Of course, the referendum must be decided by Scottish voters. But all too often, we English have appeared either as caricatures in the referendum discussions or have been airbrushed out entirely. Long term there may be a high price to pay for this marginalisation of English voices.

Unionists often ignore the existence of the English; they prefer to generalise about the ‘rest of the UK’. (In an otherwise powerful defence of the Union, a recent Gordon Brown paper contained 104 references to the UK but only four to the English – twice as pensioners and twice as taxpayers.) England is not only the largest British nation but, unlike Northern Ireland and Wales, has no clear or unique constitutional status, so this marginalisation is particularly painful here.

Even worse, Alex Salmond conjures up an entirely imaginary England that, post independence, would lean over backwards to deliver every concession and every accommodation his fragile nascent state would desperately require. In the real England, things are very different. As the Future of England Survey 2014 confirmed, there has been a steady hardening of English attitudes that won’t surprise active English politicians but seems to be unrecognised in Scotland.

The English want the Scots to vote ‘no’ by a healthy majority, but there is scant sympathy for the Scottish predicament should they vote ‘yes’. Whatever the SNP may pretend, currency union would have to be imposed against the wishes of the vast majority of English voters by a ‘remaining UK’ government. Post independence, the government would be far more overwhelmingly elected by the English than it is today. Even if – and it seems pretty unlikely – the leaders of the political parties outside Scotland favoured currency union, their voters seem in no mood to let it happen. Large majorities of English voters oppose giving even a helping hand to enable an independent Scotland become a full member of the EU or NATO.

The problem for nationalists, and for some unionists, is that they find it hard to conceive of England as a democracy. When Alex Salmond talks of the ‘Westminster establishment’ he conjures up the illusion of a self appointed political elite acting in its own interests. But, for all it’s flaws, ‘Westminster’ is the product of democratic elections in England, and the rest of the UK, all of which have their own voters and their own interests. The Future of England survey actually suggests that, on many issues, the current leaderships of the Westminster parties are actually far more accommodating to Scottish demands than the people, who have elected them.

A ‘no’ vote, important as it is, won’t resolve these tensions. There is a growing reaction to the perception of both unfair funding and disproportionate political influence for Scotland. English voters want funding cut and Scottish political weight in the Commons curbed. This doesn’t suggest there will be an easy return to ‘business as usual’ after the referendum. Not surprisingly, more English voters expect even a ‘no’ vote to be followed by the eventual break up of the Union.

It is crucial that the ‘No’ campaign wins through, but success can only mark the start, not the end, of a debate about the Union’s future. The Union will not hang together for long as a loose collection of nations with no common purpose of values other than national self interest.

So while the future of England and it’s future governance and political identity will be a crucial part of that debate, change in England alone cannot be enough. English unionists must find a stronger political basis with unionists for the rest of the UK than we have heard in the Scottish referendum campaign .

In recent years, Welsh and Scottish Labour have increasingly tended to go their own way, leaving English Labour more and more frustrated by its lack of voice or identity. After the next election, Labour is likely to be the only serious unionist party with significant representation in England, Scotland and Wales. If the Union is to be saved, not just on the 18th September but in the long term, Labour’s ability to fashion a common and progressive unionist case will be critical.

 John Denham is a Labour MP and blogs as www.theoptimisticpatriot.co.uk