Chair: Professor Richard English (QUB)

In this In-Conversation event, Professor Michael Kenny will discuss the themes of his latest book Fractured Union: Politics, Sovereignty and the Fight to Save the UK (Hurst, January 2024).

How have decision-makers in Westminster and beyond fanned the flames of national division?

Can this disunited kingdom come together once again?

The question of the United Kingdom’s survival, once taken for granted, looms large in British politics. This book uncovers the roots of today’s crisis, revealing MPs’ and civil servants’ assumptions in their understanding of the Union, and profound pessimism within politics about its long-term viability.

Why has the political class struggled to engage productively with devolution? Has English voters’ disenchantment with a detached central government influenced how politicians and bureaucrats regard the UK’s future? How have seismic events fuelled tensions between Westminster and devolved administrations, from the SNP’s election and independence referendum to Brexit and Covid? And what now?

Fractured Union offers a vivid account of the gradual loss of British unity, illuminating the forces and pressures now shaping the future of both nations and peoples. As nationalism rises across Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England, this book issues a sharp challenge to those who believe in a united kingdom: deliver better, more responsive government—or risk the UK falling apart.

Professor Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny is Professor of Public Policy, and inaugural Director of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, at the University of Cambridge. He has written extensively on national identity, territorial politics and governance, and is the author of a prizewinning study of the impact of English nationalism on British politics.