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VIDEO: Jim Gallagher & Iain McLean - The Day After Judgement: Scotland and the UK after the referendum

7 November 2014


Speaker: Professor Jim Gallagher & Professor Iain McLean
9th October 2014

Jim Gallagher argues it would be a serious error if either Scotland or the UK were to conclude things could revert to business as usual. Agreement on the full detail of further devolution plans is needed across the parties and then legislation. The more complex task will be reconstituting the union. This needs updating and restating; to reflect not just the place of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but the reality that England has a constitutional existence also, to be expressed in parliamentary procedures to deal with English legislation. All of this needs to be drawn together, codified and managed for the long run. The referendum has been both divisive and energising. Obligations fall on both sides - to accept the result, and to be magnanimous in victory.

Iain McLean argues it would be a serious error if either Scotland or the UK were to conclude things could revert to business as usual. Agreement on the full detail of further devolution plans is needed across the parties and then legislation. The more complex task will be reconstituting the union. This needs updating and restating; to reflect not just the place of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but the reality that England has a constitutional existence also, to be expressed in parliamentary procedures to deal with English legislation. All of this needs to be drawn together, codified and managed for the long run. The referendum has been both divisive and energising. Obligations fall on both sides - to accept the result, and to be magnanimous in victory.

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