On the Effects of the Rise of Nationalism in British Politics

By Michael McQuillan

Following the recent British local elections, one thing has become clear: nationalism of all kinds is on the rise.

The SNP and Plaid Cymru both received the largest share of the vote in their respective nations (58/129 and 43/96, respectively) [1,2], though neither achieved a majority. Meanwhile, the British ultra-unionist and English nationalist party ‘Reform UK’ received the greatest share of the vote in England and came second and joint second within Wales and Scotland.

Reform’s British-style nationalism is of course utterly opposed to the separatist parties of the North of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and yet for the first time since perhaps the Home Rule Crisis strict constitutional nationalism and British unionism have become the biggest factors in politics across the UK. Now, the results of these elections regarding how British politics veers its course will not become clear for some time, but one thing is for certain: we are quickly approaching a more polarised and outwardly hostile political environment. The contradiction of these ideologies will manifest differently within Scotland and Wales, and I expect that Wales will have a much harder time dealing with it, considering the much larger presence of Reform there than in Scotland [1,2]

A lockdown of Welsh politics quite like that of Stormont may occur due to in the two parties being be opposed on many fronts, such as immigration, social issues and of course, constitutional status causing the Senedd to operate at poor capacity compared to its previous running by the series of labour-led coalitions and minority governments, in Scotland I believe the SNP will have a much easier time though not without difficulties due to the much smaller number of reform seats (17) and the more multipolar results of the Scottish election wherein Labour, Greens and LibDems remain highly relevant relative to their positions in Wales.Either way, the lack of a majority in either parliament will cause both parties difficulty.

This is especially true if Reform win the next general election in the next few years and place pressure on the devolved parliaments from Westminster over immigration policies.[3] Whilst it is too early to know, politics is about to change, and we may see more extreme measures as the push for independence becomes more inflamed.

Citations:

[1] https://vote.wales/election-results/

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3e2v4n20xlo

[3] https://consoc.org.uk/reform-legal-and-devolution-challenges/