DESPITE 21 years of devolution, the Tory government’s handling of Brexit and Covid-19 has confirmed that the UK is one of the most centralised states in the world. 

But now it seems everyone is in favour of constitutional change — Tories, Labour, Lib Dems and, of course, nationalists.

We should remember that constitutions are not neutral — they are devised to deliver for those in power, and in our society that means supporters of global capitalism. 

Keeping our markets open to international business through neoliberal policies is embedded in our legislation — in trade deals, including that recently struck with the European Union, and could be enshrined in a future written constitution.

If we argue for constitutional change, then it makes sense to start with what we want to achieve and work backwards to what systems of democracy can help to achieve that.

The Morning Star has contributed to that process over the past two weeks, with articles from Neil Findlay MSP, Mick Antoniw SM and elected mayor Jamie Driscoll. All three elected Labour politicians recognise that we are at a crossroads. 

Antoniw quoted Aneurin Bevan: “The purpose to securing power was to give it away.” 

While he argues that devolution has contributed to that process in Wales and Scotland, it has now reached the end of its useful purpose. 

All three writers believe that power needs to be devolved to the level where it can be most effective. 

In Scotland and Wales, there is a danger that parliaments operate like smaller versions of Westminster, centralising and absorbing powers that could effectively be the responsibility of local government.

The metro mayors are now recognised as leading spokespeople for their areas. 

As Driscoll, himself an elected mayor, said: “It’s not the model I would have chosen, but we have to start from where we are.” 

Once power is devolved, those trying to exercise it hit up against its limitations, which inevitably leads to demands for more power. 

Ron Davies, when he was secretary of state for Wales, said: “Devolution is a process, not an event.” 

In 1998, he probably had no idea how far the process would go.  

Findlay argues that in Scotland, we need to learn from those who campaigned for devolution 30 years ago. 

Scotland United brought together trade unionists and people from both Labour and the SNP. 

He argues that the same approach should be used to demand radical change in Scotland’s economy and more powers to deliver for working people. 

Also, if there is a future referendum, it should not be restricted to a binary choice between independence and the status quo, but should have a third option of more powers.

People should not have to choose the least worst option but have a wider democratic choice.

The eventual outcome of greater devolution, whether in Wales, Scotland or the English regions, has to be a federal Britain. 

It is inevitable that if powers are devolved over issues that are cross-territorial, there has to be a process where joint decisions are taken. I would argue that it should be a senate of the nations and regions. 

The recently passed UK Internal Markets Act is an example of why we need such a senate. Once out of the EU, there was a need to establish common standards on matters such as food safety and animal welfare that would apply across Britain. 

The Internal Market Act was imposed by a centralised Tory executive in Westminster, in a Parliament where it has a clear majority but overriding the concerns of the devolved administrations. 

It removed the power over state aid that was granted in the Scotland Act 1998. Even though state aid was rarely used and constrained by membership of the EU, its removal demonstrated clearly that what is given under devolution can just as easily be taken away. 

A senate of the nations and regions would allow parts of England to make common cause with the devolved assemblies to ensure their needs were taken into account against the overcentralised UK Parliament.

Many parts of the UK suffer the same problems, such as food poverty, fuel poverty, poorly paid insecure jobs or no jobs at all.

Whether it is areas of London, small towns, coastal towns, rural communities or areas of deindustrialisation in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England, they share similar experiences.

As Alan Simpson wrote in Saturday’s Morning Star, such solidarities matter far more than national boundaries.

Simpson also made an important point: unless wealth redistribution comes hand in hand with power redistribution, all reforms would end in tears.

That is why the Red Paper Collective in Scotland has argued that any proposed constitution change should be judged by whether it enables the redistribution of wealth, democratises our economy and creates conditions for both solidarity and subsidiarity.  

Radical or progressive federalism should not be dismissed as a difficult concept understood by no-one except a handful of constitutional lawyers.

It can easily be understood as a way of enabling representatives from all parts of the UK to come together in a senate to deal with those issues that cross over territories and cannot be resolved in isolation in one part of the country.

We know absolutely that public health is such an issue and the pollution of our environment cannot be solved in one part of the UK without involving all the others. 

On the other hand, some powers can be used effectively at a more local level.

There should be the power to invest through common and public ownership, guaranteeing the highest level of workers’ rights and the return on public investment going back to the public purse, rather than to private profit.

This debate is happening now and the left needs to take a lead.

We must use the criteria of redistribution, democratising the economy and solidarity with subsidiarity as the parameters for deciding whether change is in the interests of working people.

If we step back, others with different priorities will frame our future.

Join the discussion at Claim the Future: Nations and Regions: Radicalising the British State (claimthefuture.today) on February 25 and March 25; the Scottish Morning Star Conference: Jobs, Economic Democracy and the Crisis of the Welfare State on March 28; and see the Red Paper Collective journal and its Report on Remaking the British State (www.scottishlabourleft.co.uk).