Now Brexit really is threatening to tear the UK apart

Now Brexit really is threatening to tear the UK apart | Martin Kettle

Despite warnings, Theresa May has maintained her dangerously obtuse attitude to Scotland and Northern Ireland

Theresa May cannot say she has not been warned. Brexit poses a mounting threat to the unity of the UK. Nor can she dispute the eminence of those who have been doing the warning. During the referendum campaign in 2016, John Major counselled that a British exit could “tear apart” the UK. This past summer, Gordon Brown argued Britain was at serious risk of “being permanently paralysed by seemingly irreparable divisions”. These are serious voices.

To the unwary, their warnings might seem to have been directed at receptive ears. Few serving prime ministers express their commitment to the union more often or more clearly than May. She calls it her “beloved union”. Last week, at her party conference, she called it her “precious union”. It would be wrong to doubt the sincerity of such words. But the impact of Brexit on the union is now more threatening than ever, and May seems to possess a wholly inadequate armoury of words, ideas and actions to mitigate or prevent it.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2yuZGkh

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