THE big story in constitutional news last week is the UK Internal Market Bill. The bill’s very existence is evidence of the UK’s economic isolation; it purports to ensure the efficient operation of an internal UK-wide “single market” once the EU single-market is closed to us.

It has also created quite a storm at Westminster. Lord Keen, the Advocate-General for Scotland, has resigned over it. Stiff opposition is expected in the Lords. Some Tory MPs have even sought to amend the bill, although any backbench rebellion appears to have been easily seen off.

The bill has rightly attracted criticism on two fronts. Firstly, it authorises ministers to make secondary legislation incompatible with the UK’s obligations under international law. It puts both the EU Withdrawal Agreement and the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement in peril. That is playing with fire. It jeopardises peace in Northern Ireland. It tarnishes the United Kingdom’s reputation as a dependable member of the international community, making any future agreement with the EU, or anyone else for that matter, much harder.

It also threatens respect for rule of law more broadly. Without the rule of law, despotism and anarchy prevail. To erode the rule of law is to undermine the liberty, security and prosperity of society. Yet, as we have seen, this Government appears prepared to do just that.

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Secondly, the UK Internal Market Bill diminishes the policy space in which the devolved legislatures can operate. It thwarts attempts to develop distinctive nation-specific policy approaches and rounds things down to the level imposed by the UK Government. It would not quite abolish the devolved institutions, but it would gut them of much real autonomy, especially in matters touching upon economic and industrial policy.

This is a massive breach of trust. Whatever else it was supposed to do, devolution was designed to give Scotland enough power over our own domestic politics, economic development, infrastructure, and public services to protect us from the disastrous consequences of another Tory Government at Westminster. Unfortunately, devolution could never overcome its fundamental limitations: namely that power devolved is power retained, since nothing overrides the sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament.

Even the Scotland Act 2016, which solemnly declared the “permanence” of the Scottish Parliament and put the Sewel Convention (the principle that Westminster should not normally legislate on any devolved matter without the consent of the Scottish Parliament) on a statutory basis, has proven to be an insufficient guarantee. There has been no move towards the genuinely federal solution that might have secured Scotland’s autonomy from Westminster’s smash-and-grab raid.

I do not propose to undertake a detailed analysis of the UK Internal Market Bill or its provisions. We need to zoom out, not in. To view the bill in isolation is to see only half the horror. The true hideousness of the bill only becomes apparent when put in the context of a Government that is willing to undermine Parliament, the judiciary, the civil service and human rights. Then it can be seen for what it is: part of a concerted attempt to undermine all institutions that could constrain or contradict the power of Boris’s Brexit Britain regime.

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Fighting an issue-by-issue rear-guard action against this is unlikely to be effective. Much of the good-chaps spirit of fair play which once mitigated the worst aspects of the unwritten constitution has already been lost. The “things that no fellow should do” are now done, openly, brazenly and unapologetically. It might be that what remains cannot be saved. Instead of wasting efforts upon the latest outrage, we should be laying constitutional foundations for a new future, when the time comes to rebuild what has been destroyed.

So rather than thinking in terms of specific constitutional reforms (like, say, proportional representation) we should start thinking of a wholescale “constitutional refoundation”. I would welcome a UK-wide constituent assembly to hammer out a genuinely federal constitution. I hope Sir Keir Starmer tries it. However, the tragedy of the United Kingdom is that its need for such a refoundation seems to outstrip both appetite and capacity; the need is too great and too urgent, and Toryism and nostalgia are too strong. It has, like so many dying empires, become so ossified that it cannot make the changes needed to survive.

Certainly, Scotland can no longer afford to wait for Westminster to set its house in order. The second chance offered with the Vow in 2014 has been squandered. There comes a point where enough is enough. England is stuck in a rut. It is not their fault; but it is, ultimately, their problem. We have to find our own way to move ahead. My tentative suggestion is that an Act of the Scottish Parliament make provision for the formation of a Scottish Constituent Assembly, made up of MSPs, MPs and civil society, to draft a new Scottish Constitution that can then be put to the people in an advisory referendum.

This column welcomes questions from readers

Robin McAlpine is the next guest on the TNT show at 7pm on Wednesday