Prospect Magazine - Blueprint for Britain - 2015

Prospect, the UK's leading magazine of ideas, launched the Blueprint for Britain series to discuss—and answer—the questions raised by the Scottish independence referendum about how the UK should run itself. Though more than six months have passed, those questions will not go away.

We set up a panel of constitutional experts, politicians and those with a wider interest in the outcome to examine the questions:
• What powers should Scotland have?
• How should political power be shared between Westminster, the regions and the cities? How should the money be shared out—including the wealth generated by London and other cities?
• How should Wales and Northern Ireland, the poorest areas, be protected?
• Should the House of Lords now be reformed, as part of the answer to regional representation?
• Should Britain stick with its voting system, when “first past the post” yields results so unrepresentative of the underlying vote?

Behind those questions looms the one that may dominate politics after the general election—of which powers Britain should itself share with the EU.

Here, we gather together some of the best responses to those questions from our panel of experts and draw out conclusions.