Henry McLeish is on @BBCWeekendGMS banging on about federalism again. Can we please just put this one to bed? Federalism cannot work. It cannot work because Scotland cannot impose federalism on England, and England doesn't want it. >>>

It cannot work because to achieve even reasonably equal sized states, England would have to be split into about 8-12 states, and England doesn't want that either. >>>

It cannot work because if one confederate can outvote all others, then there is no benefit for the smaller confederates in remaining in the confederation.

It cannot work because because England won't accept a federation in which each confederate has the same number of votes. >>>

Finally, it cannot work because, as long as the Westminster parliament 'is sovereign', the Westminster parliament can at any time unilaterally change the deal - which means, in practice, that England can. >>>

The only way to protect a federal agreement would be a written constitution for the UK, and that would open a whole new can of worms. What of the monarchy? The House of Lords? First Past the Post? >>>

In fact, the rights of Scotland can NEVER be protected within the UK without a written constitution for the UK, whether we have federalism or not. But a constitution opens so many very awkward questions that the establishment will not ever allow it without revolution. >>>

What this all boils down to is that Scotland views the Treaty of Union as an agreement between equals, but England has never seen it that way and certainly doesn't now. If 1707 was not an act of conquest, 1746 certainly was. >>>

So let's forget this. Federalism, like cutting England loose from the sea-bed and floating it over to moor off the coast of North Carolina, or appointing an infallible AI computer as president for (eternal) life, is a solution which might work in fantasy but not in this world.