Shifting Plates

The tectonic plates of British politics are shifting this week through immense gravitation and friction. Within the space of 7 days (a week is a long time in politics I hear you cry), the SNP achieved a parliamentary victory for the first time in their history, power sharing is finalised in Northern Ireland with old foes McGuiness and Paisley united, and Tony Blair will announce his resignation paving the way for Gordon Brown to assume the leadership. Now these developments have not arisen out of the blue and I will not analyse the historical context here, rather let's consider what this means for the future of British politics. Well - one word - regionalisation. The tide of devolution that has broken over British shores since 1999, has received its largest fillip this week. Now political structures and true devolved power are in place, economic and cultural prosperity can flourish. Well that's the idea. England, sitting in the middle of this upheaval, will in some ways be heading in an opposite direction: a Scottish leader, the ever present burden of centralised power and an identity crisis on the horizon. But the reverse might happen, multiculturalism has been England's substitute for devolution in our cultural barometer, a leader not embroiled in South East England's Middle Englishness could challenge the population in new and rewarding ways (the West Lothian question reversed and answered), and globalisation - already rampant - will continue as English identity and political influence stretches further afield. So devolution empowers, but also liberates.

Now given the predictably intractable nature of British politics, these shifts of power will probably face complications: the SNP need to play coalition politics to make anything from their victory, Paisley and McGuiness hold diametrically opposed views, Brown is facing a demoralised Labour party and Conservatives in the ascendancy pressuring for an early General Election. So the political tectonic plates are moving in a similar way to Earth's: convergent (two political plates moving towards each other - Northern Ireland), divergent (two plates moving apart - Scotland) and transform (two plates sliding horizontally past each other creating cataclysmic stresses along the way - Blair to Brown to Cameron of course!). This might be a very unscientific geography lesson, but I hope it sums up the historic events of the last week.