Is the Union finished?

The headline on the Telegraph website today says something that doesn't particularly surprise me. Apparently, according to a recent poll, "England wants its independence". In fact, as the Telegraph's image to the right shows, there appears to be a larger majority in favour of English independence than there are for Scottish independence, although interestingly the questions do explain that Scotland gets more money per head than England, so that might explain the skew. It would be interesting to know how many English changed their mind on independence after being told about the spending reality.

The real question I think is what the implications of, in effect, repealing the Act of Union would actually be. What role, if any, could monarchy play in such situation? Also, there is the European question. Technically, the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland joined the European project, if the Union were to end, then renegotiation would become a reality for all home nations. That would be a rather good situation to be, England could just join EFTA and avoid being part of a bureaucratic monster.

Of course, the likelihood of the Union being broken is small. Labour - at least at the moment - will never do it because they rely so heavily on Scottish votes. That's the same reason they refuse to even address the Westlothian Question - better to be an ostrich in their opinion. The Conservative Party are unlikely to break the Union, it's a rather radical thing to do and I think there would be concern about unintended consequences.

Having said all this, if the SNP win power in the May election, then they may very well start the process for us. If that happened it could be a blessing in disguise for our relationship with European Union, couldn't it?