Letter: "Issues for the Union"

It was interesting to read your article under this heading (Journal, February 2014, 10). A key point that your author has however missed is that the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain by the merger of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England under the Act of Union 1707, is the lynchpin of the “United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland”. It follows that the repeal of the Act of Union and the consequent demerger of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England will necessarily, from a constitutional legal perspective, dissolve the “United Kingdom”. The reason that the independence of Southern Ireland did not trigger dissolution is that the Irish union in 1801 was with the Kingdom of Great Britain.

The interesting point here is that contrary to Mr Barroso’s assumption that it is only Scotland that will be a “new state”, in fact from a constitutional perspective all the constituent nations of what would then be the former United Kingdom will be “new states”, and from an English perspective, mirabile dictu, we will all be out of the European Union!