The Break-Up of Britain: A Verso Roundtable

Thursday 6th May 2021 will see an extraordinary number of elections take place across the UK. Alongside local, council and mayoral elections, nationalist parties are expected to see overall gains in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd as members are elected. Does this predicted rise in the popularity of the SNP and Plaid Cymru portend the demise of the United Kingdom? How will the increasing likelihood of Irish unification deepen Britain's constitutional crisis? Across the coming week, Verso will publish a series of essays examining these questions, responding to the assessments made by Tom Nairn and republished in the new edition of his landmark book, The Break-Up of Britain: Crisis and Neo-Nationalism. 

Part 1: A Reluctant Prophet? The Break-Up of Britain and Scottish Nationalism Today, by James Foley

Part 2: “Tonguetied sons of bastards’ ghosts”: Tom Nairn and Northern Ireland’s English Question, by Colin Coulter

Part 3: The Breakdown of Welsh Unionism's 'Common Sense', by Huw Williams