Recently Scotland rocked the political world, especially in Europe, by holding a formal vote to leave the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom also known as Great Britain is composed of four major political subdivisions. These are England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Over the past decades Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each have gained what are called devolved governments from the main national government in London, England.
Powers though not completely equal in each area devolved to the areas except England include, transportation, taxation, local services: sanitation, police, public works, and education.
In truly federalized nations such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates have federalized systems.
The areas of these respective nations make up a national government. Each area is a main political subdivision that is equal more or less to the federal government in each nation. The federal government is reserved powers to govern the nation state composed of states, provinces, cantons, or emirates . The rest of the powers not given to the national federal government are the areas of the major political divisions of that nation.
Generally federal governments are assigned national law making, raising armies, navies, air forces, printing and/or coining the national currency, interstate or interprovincial commerce, and federal prison systems.
States as we will call them, though known by different names around the world in their respective lands are assigned overseeing the day to day local functions. The either directly supervise or devolve to cities and towns within them police powers, sanitation, fire protection and prevention, local judicial matters that involve petty and lesser crimes, education, incarceration at the sub national level for crimes against the various states, environment, etc.
Some powers both the federal and state entities share concurrently. These are incarceration for crimes, police powers, taxation, maintaining militias (part of a greater national force such as an army or navy when called upon) but otherwise subject to the heads of government to carry out defense and other emergency powers when the emergency is localized, regulation of commerce on the intrastate and interstate levels, judicial systems, and overseeing the political activity in each jurisdiction at the federal or state level.
Great Britain has been a unitary state for many hundreds of years with the King or Queen as Sovereign, the national legislature and government or parliament with the House of Commons having the most power and the House of Lords the upper house having diminished greatly over the years in its role as national government. In a unitary state the national government delegates or devolves powers it sees fit to the local levels of governance and reserves greater powers for itself both national and local powers not devolved.
At anytime a superior government can reserve back to itself the devolved powers with a stroke of a legal pen with or without justification.
In the federal systems the Constitutions limit the soverign where one reigns such as Canada and Australia. In the United States the federal government cannot dissolve state governments under any conditions. The US Constitution gives both the national and state governments reserved, concurrent, and/or implied powers that cannot be taken away except as the national constitution directs. The states can also check the federal government through their national congressional delegations or parliamentary deligations, laws or appeals to the federal government. In some cases states have refused to enforce federal laws as there is no constitutional mechanism to compel states and their political subdivisions to act on federal legislation.
An example of this in the United States is with drug laws, particularly marijuana. Federally the cannabis plant is illegal to grow, manufacture into product and sell in all 50 states. However, California, Colorado, Alaska, and Washington State all defy this law by only enforcing their own laws and leaving the federal law enforcement to do its work solo unless there is a compelling interest to join forces. Usually both jurisdictions work together where required and even not required. Similarly the federal government of the United States has arbitrarily chosen to enforce immigration law, which is national and not subnational leaving states to try to enforce federal law and the federal government deciding if it will or will not cooperate with the states.
In a unitary state all of this is decided at the national level, avoiding a check and balance system that exist to a greater or lesser style in federalized units.
Now the UK has develoved or delegated out the more localized powers to the governments nearest the people, it will be hard to take this back into London even though in English law the Westminster Government is completedly able to do so without reservation or accountability to the regional and local governments.
The UK is on a collision course with permenant federalism de facto or formally given up by London to the other regional units. This would leave the UK government almost soley with national issues and the regions of the UK with the day to day affairs of delegating out their respective local responsibilities. Even laws passed would be independent of London, except as agreed federally.
What should happen is during the current time devlolution in the UK should be maintained and the last devolvement of local government going to England. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all have Capital cities, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast respectively.
England should move the regional government out of London to decentralize the national government to a Capital the English people would designate. Candidates for the English Capital would be Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Dover or another designated city. Once devolution is complete and all governments are functional at the regional level London would call a national constitutional convention. Representatives would come from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and hammer out a written constitution making each regional government sovereign from the national and each regional government would have the same responsibilities within its sphere and London could not take back, except in national emergency, any localized function or regionalized function.
London would take care of the national business and the four regions would send representatives to comprise the national government and run the country from London. London would work with Cardiff, Belfast, Ediburgh and the English capital to resolve problems. The queen would be represented by a governal general as in other former English colonies now independent of the British Crown at the regional levels as a delegate to exercise her powers as defined by federal agreement.
This would strenghthen the United Kingdom and ensure that they remained a major player on the global stage. The United States was the first to reject the unitary state and devolution government back in 1775 which resulted in the American Revolution. Other now independent nation states that have maintained a tie with the British Crown almost always "interact" with the queen via the governor general, who is like the Monarch left to ceremonial purposes except as defined by law.
The British though proud of tradition need to realize that all of their former colonies now independent especially the US, Canada, and Australia, have become more powerful due to each one's federal model. Canada's is actually more European in style while Australia is a hybrid of the US and European systems.
The Act of Union in 1707 unified the British people under one government. Now it is time for the National government to act as a purely national government by the people and for the people of the British Isles.
This will save the UK in my opinion. All that would need to happen are the Welch to get mad and hold a plebocite on separation from the UK. Scotland would almost equally follow. Northern Ireland would leave and only England would remain, unless it to desoloved a British government and the once great empire will have completely fallen without hope of a second wind resurrection.
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