Despite what the prime minister says, the UK is not proceeding as one on Covid restrictions

It is a nice thought, but it is not so.

The UK has a fundamental and simple problem: it has said that Scotland and Northern Ireland can leave the Union if there is merely a 50% plus one vote.

In other major nation states such as Germany, France, Spain or America, such weakness over integral parts of national territory would be unthinkable. Often these nations have no mechanism for regions to leave, and even if they did it would be a matter for both nation and region.

The ease with which Scotland and NI can quit puts both jurisdictions in a permanent exit poll mindset. Covid has worsened this, because it gives separatists in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff a motive to blame London for pandemic consequences and to pursue different policies, almost for the sake of it. There is never gratitude for the funding of the Treasury, which has saved the four home countries from financial ruin. Instead, there are demands for more.

The government is aware of this threat to the Union, but even so must think hard about how it can apply pressure to nationalists. One response is revenue raising powers so that spending heavily has consequences. But such powers can exacerbate the concept of difference and separation.

There is no easy way forward, but passivity in the face of nationalist opportunism is not an option.

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