It’s a leg-itimate conkern.

I think the solution is more Scandinavian or Yugoslavian or Baltic- a grouping of independent neighbouring States with a lot of history and other things in common and with all or some being within the EU. The British union is as unnecessary as a Scandinavian, Yugoslavian or Baltic union would be.

I suspect that many English people, not necessarily rabid England First people, would rather see England as a sovereign state again than as a downgraded non-sovereign country with much reduced power in a more equal British union.

The report of the Brown commission on the constitutional future of the UK is the most serious attempt yet to try to rebalance and save the union, although it left crucial questions unresolved. It's going nowhere. Any solution which would satisfy Scotland would be too much for England to swallow.

A genuine argument for Scottish independence, which could help to persuade a fair few undecideds, is now that we must protect Scotland from this sort of “England first” arrogance.

What England did have was the fact that English was to a large extent the working language of the EU. What other country with that advantage would have chosen to leave?

Some had similar old-fashioned reasons for being Remain. Michael Heseltine at a talk in Edinburgh a few years ago made it clear that he didn't like handing too much influence in Europe to Germany. This was "winning the war but losing the peace".

And, curiously, there is virtually no sense of UK identity. Nobody describes themselves as Ukish. I think it is inherently flawed and unstable. Structurally, there is no way of rescuing it. The most stable solution would be for it to dissolve into its constituent parts

The UK is a grossly unbalanced, badly constructed, potentially and sometimes actually bullying, union. No country would today voluntarily join such a union - one dominant member, no protections for smaller members, no qualified voting, no exit mechanism for all members.

A country which is not a state in the eyes of international law can become, or become again, a country which is a state in the eyes of international law. Plenty of examples.

I think it depends on a mix of history, geography, enduring national institutions and an enduring feeling of national identity. Scotland was for centuries both a country and a state with treaty making powers etc. It has kept borders, national institutions and a strong feeling of national identity.

Well, I don't think the second sentence reflects how most people in Scotland see it - even unionists think Scotland is a country. And I think most people in England see England as a country. The UK is maybe just sui generis.

That's the current and foreseeable reality certainly. I was just idly speculating that a new generation of NI voters might one day conclude that they had a strong identity of their own and that independence within the EU would avoid triumphalism on one side or the other.

There would be nothing inconceivable about an outcome where Scotland and Wales were independent EU member states, with England joining a bit later. NI might prefer another solution for itself but, from the outside, independent EU membership for NI too might solve a lot of problems.

On other points in the thread I agree that there is no future in the idea of a more balanced union created by splitting up England and demoting Scotland. Scotland would never accept being reduced from a country to a region. And making English regions into countries would be inefficient and unwanted.

Complicated. The Kingdom of England absorbed Wales. That enlarged Kingdom of England (a union by absorption) entered into a union with Scotland (GB). That union then entered into a union with Ireland. Then most of Ireland broke away. Result - a union with different unions, and unionists, within it

I don't agree that the UK is a unitary state. It is a strange sort of union, with four constituent parts. The Supreme Court accepted in the Ld Adv's reference case that the union between Scotland and England was an ongoing relationship, not just a historical event.