Thursday’s election leaves the Anglo-Scottish Union on the brink. A combination of the first past the post system and the crystallisation of increasingly sharp attitudinal differences between England and Scotland has produced starkly divergent political systems which are now set to clash in the House of Commons. A revitalised Conservative Party will form a government with a mandate to pursue further reductions in public spending, a radical reorientation of Britain’s place in Europe, and an agenda of constitutional reform designed to enhance the legislative power of English MPs (although, with a Conservative majority in the Commons, this goal is in the short term an issue of principle rather than practical relevance). The new government will at the same time be challenged by an equally assertive block of Scottish nationalists. The SNP will claim the political legitimacy to fight austerity, demand implementation of its own constitutional priorities – Smith plus, plus…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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