Will There Always Be a Britain?

ONE of the greatest achievements of the English has been the creation of Britain, an abstract political entity that permitted shared identity with their Celtic neighbors, the Scots and Welsh. (The Irish, more nationalistic and farther away, went down the alternative route of separateness.) This very year, the Acts of Union by which Scotland came to share sovereignty with England and Wales are 300 years old. They are the foundation of the United Kingdom, and the key to British successes from the Scottish Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution down to the former empire on which the sun never set.

Despite this astonishing release of creativity and energy, there is to be no official celebration of the Acts of Union. Acontrary policy of empowering the Scots and Welsh operates instead. An election in Scotland has just given the Scottish Nationalist party a plurality in the Scottish parliament, though so narrowly that it needs a coalition if it is to govern. The leader of the SNP, Alex Salmond, is immensely wily, a survivor of many a bitter political battle, and he makes a program for the sovereign independence of Scotland sound plausible. The breakup of the United Kingdom, and therefore the obsolescence of Britain, is a distinct possibility.

About the Author

David Pryce-Jones

David Pryce-Jones (1936–2025) was a British author and commentator and served as a senior editor of National Review.

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ONE of the greatest achievements of the English has been the creation of Britain, an abstract political entity that permitted shared identity with their Celtic neighbors, the Scots and Welsh. (The Irish, more nationalistic and farther away, went down the alternative route of separateness.) This very year, the Acts of Union by which Scotland came to share sovereignty with England and Wales are 300 years old. They are the foundation of the United Kingdom, and the key to British successes from the Scottish Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution down to the former empire on which the sun never set.

Despite this astonishing release of creativity and energy, there is to be no official celebration of the Acts of Union. Acontrary policy of empowering the Scots and Welsh operates instead. An election in Scotland has just given the Scottish Nationalist party a plurality in the Scottish parliament, though so narrowly that it needs a coalition if it is to govern. The leader of the SNP, Alex Salmond, is immensely wily, a survivor of many a bitter political battle, and he makes a program for the sovereign independence of Scotland sound plausible. The breakup of the United Kingdom, and therefore the obsolescence of Britain, is a distinct possibility.