THERE is “complacency and self-satisfaction in Westminster” and England will have to “confront big issues” if Scotland achieves independence, according to former BBC journalists Gavin Esler.
Speaking to the Sunday National ahead of the launch of his new book, How Britain Ends: English Nationalism And The Rebirth Of Four Nations, the Glasgow-born former Newsnight presenter puts the issue of England at centre stage in his account of the current state of the Union.
Esler told Gerry Hassan: “There is so much complacency and self-satisfaction in Westminster including going on about the great glories of the unwritten constitution. The cultural and political run together in this complacency.
“The argument that we have just muddled through the past 1000 years and can continue to do so – when the UK has not lasted 1000 years and it has not been about muddling through but conscious decisions at key times.”
“England will have to confront big issues if there is Scottish independence, such as what do we do about the nuclear weapons that were in Faslane? What do we do about an England that might not have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council?
“Would it not be wise to start these conversations now? What would we do about an England out of the EU, if Scotland were to join the EU?”
READ MORE: Gerry Hassan: Who will speak up for a democratic England in the slow break-up of Britain?
Esler stressed that there is nothing wrong with a strong attachment to England but that more understanding of complex history is crucial to understanding the future.
He adds: “The cultural realm is not about throwing statues into the river or canals. It is not about denying history. It is about having more history and more historical understanding.
“There are many Englands. This debate matters to all of us in these isles because without England becoming a modern democratic forward-looking country it has a detrimental effect on the rest of us no matter what our constitutional status is.”
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