The big issue

By far the biggest issue is that of government, although the other issues should not be regarded as trivial. The government of the UK must be separated from the government of England so that England is on an equal footing with the other members, with its powers being devolved from the overall union government. Until that happens, Westminster will always be regarded as the English centre of power over the other nations. London and Westminster should revert to its original role: the capital and seat of government of England. With a much reduced parliament, about two-thirds of its current size, and smaller supporting infrastructure, the savings from running a smaller English parliament and civil service could be used to help create and run a new British government at a different location.

A new country with an old name

We should do away with dubious references to a union of kingdoms and clumsy attempts to include Northern Ireland but no mention of the other nations. A simple name will do, one given to our islands by the Romans which we can redefine as including Northern Ireland (the Roman name for all Ireland was “Scotia”. For the island which is now Wales, Scotland and England, the name was “Britannia”). How about calling ourselves simply “Britain”, in honour of those who we call Britons, who first colonised these islands.

A new union government

The County of Rutland disappeared in the county reorganisation of 1974. The people of Rutland fought back and regained their status as a separate county in England. It is a county which has shown that it is prepared to fight for its identity to be recognised – a quality that would find sympathy in Scotland, Wales and Ireland and, increasingly, in the rest of England. Let us recognise that quality by raising its status even higher, from that of an English county to being the home of the British government. The county of Rutland should become the Rutland Capital County, under the direct jurisdiction of the British government, independent of any of the member nations (including England) and Oakham would become the new capital city of Britain! This would require a new complex of federal government buildings, significantly smaller than the present UK government, as suggested above. Such a government could be no more than, say 100 seats, with 40% English, 25% Scottish, 20% Welsh and 15% Northern Irish seats. A similarly structured senate, or upper house, would complete the organisation. This would mean that England could no longer outvote the other partners; they would always have to have the support of at least one other nation. Party politics would also have an effect so that decisions would be a truly international process. Government buildings would need to be built in a fashion sympathetic to the beautiful rural nature of Rutland, respecting the nature reserve close by. Such a location would be far enough away from the dominance of the south-east of England to be acceptable to other parts of the union and is close to good communications links. What a massive project! Just the thing we need to boost the economy in all of Britain.