Foreign experts assess prospects for maintaining UK integrity

Nov. 6, 2021 - PRLog -- PenzaNews. The Welsh Government has established the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales, which will consider the issue of the region's independence in the context of future relations with the rest of the United Kingdom.

According to the message published on the Cabinet website on October 19, the Commission will be co-chaired by Professor Laura McAllister and former Archbishop Rowan Williams and will consider and develop options for "fundamental reform of the constitutional structures of the United Kingdom, in which Wales remains an integral part and all progressive principal options to strengthen Welsh democracy and deliver improvements for the people of Wales."

At the same time, Laura McAllister stated that everything is supposed to be on the table.

"So it would be ludicrous to remove any options at this stage. Independence means different things depending on different contexts," she said.

The Commission was created on the initiative of the ministers of the Welsh government who are members of the Labor Party. The Nationalist Party noted that the new body will allow for a broad conversation about the future of Wales, and said they intend to cooperate with the commission to discuss the issue of independence. Welsh conservatives have called this topic irrelevant.

At the same time, in another administrative-political part of the United Kingdom – Scotland – the issue of independence is more acute. In September, Scotland's first minister, head of the Scottish National Party, Nicola Sturgeon, announced her intention to hold a new independence referendum by the end of 2023, despite strong opposition from London.

"As we emerge from the pandemic, choices fall to be made that will shape our economy and society for decades to come. So we intend to offer the choice. We will do so only when the COVID crisis has passed but our aim, COVID permitting, is that it will be in the first half of this Parliament – before the end of 2023," she said, presenting the Scottish MPs with the government's agenda for the coming year.

Read the full article: https://penzanews.ru/en/analysis/67305-2021