A week away in the remotest part of the Outer Hebrides is probably a good place to be to avoid endless discussions about the travails of Gordon Brown. Yet, despite the local focus on newly born lambs, this year's brood of attentive chicks being cared for by birds you would never see in London and the rumours about the latest immigrants, a pair of snowy owls, it becomes ever clearer that the political world 660 miles north of London is fast diverging from that of London, Cardiff or Belfast.
You would not think that a radio programme about the Eurovision Song Contest would have much relevance in this connection. Yet, almost every caller wanted the end of a UK entry and the promotion next year of a Scottish entry. Again, elsewhere in broadcasting, the debate continues as to whether the BBC should produce its own edition of the Six O'Clock News. Already, respected broadcasters term RAF squadrons based in Scotland as the Scottish Air Force. The old phrase 'down South' meaning to indicate the three other parts of the UK are now described as 'countries across the border'.
Gordon Brown has talked about 'Britishness' for over a decade as if there was a need to protect and buttress a decaying edifice. Culture in Scotland has now a much more distinct shine from that elsewhere in the UK - although Hebridean culture that currently intends to turn a hotel and bar into a new church, might not reflect the entirety of the Scottish diaspora's views.
It seems most likely to me that the Scottish experience will move further again from what you might expect in England. Wales, too, with plans for more Assembly powers, will appear a stranger land to many.
New Labour seem to have no plans for addressing the English aspect of this drawing apart. Any debate swiftly alights on free medical prescriptions in Wales and free university education and extensive free care for the elderly in Scotland. Part of the problem may be that very few people from England ever visit Scotland or Wales and thus have a media-driven view of what is happening to the UK.
If Scotland does enter the Eurovision Song Contest (and I will avoid the inevitable jokes this will create for English people), will there then be a category for EnglandandWalesand Northern Ireland? Will Scottish developments set a standard of policy and involvement that will have to be copied by the rest of the UK or will there be another plan? If the BBC produce a separate news service for Scotland (as they already do in Wales, but who cares), will there follow a demand that England has its own service, produced not from London but in Manchester? Indeed, are there that many institutions left that can truly be described as 'British' in nature?
Apart from a few academics, very few people seem to be considering the implications of this second phase in the devolution programme. Years ago, a colleague expressed astonishment when he finally concluded that devolution could result in the break-up of the UK. But Blair and Brown knew all the implications, surely?
But until something is done about the elephant in the corner of the room - England- it would take a brave and insightful person to predict where this all will take us.
PS When the Carinish Inn does become a church, I will let you know. Could this be a policy solution for lager louts and the under-age drinking problem in England?
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