The prime minister prefers to centralise power rather than give it away. That is bad news for Britain
Nations are not born; they are made. Whether nations last is entirely up to the people who manufactured them. This provides one important reason to pay attention to the results of last week’s “Super Thursday” elections. In Scotland, the Scottish National party, which has been in power for 14 years, increased its representation in Holyrood. In Wales, Labour upped its vote share by 4% this year, having won 27 general election victories in a row and triumphed six times in devolved polls. Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford will remain first minister of their respective nations.
Boris Johnson’s first response was the right one: to ask the two leaders to work with him. Had he refused to make direct contact, the prime minister would have looked like he could not come to terms with his opponents’ success. As the political scientist Roger Awan-Scully has pointed out, Welsh Labour campaigned for more powers. Mr Drakeford wants to embed the devolution settlement so it cannot be “pulled back by the whim of a prime minister”. Compromise should be possible. But Mr Johnson prefers to centralise power rather than give it away.
