Nearly half believe devolution has led to unfair distribution of public money in Scotland's favour, study finds
English voters are becoming increasingly resentful of what they perceive as Scotland's special privileges within the UK, with ever greater numbers identifying themselves as primarily English rather than British, according to a major study.
The report, by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in association with Cardiff and Edinburgh universities, shows the severe strains affecting the union, amid an acrimonious debate about a potential referendum on Scotland's move towards either full independence or an all-but-autonomous "devolution max". Irrespective of Scotland's eventual fate, politicians need to embrace this renewed sense of Englishness rather than leave it as the preserve of far-right groups such as the British National party and English Defence League, the report's authors warn.
The research has been released ahead of the launch on Wednesday of a Scotland-wide consultation by the first minister, Alex Salmond, on the details of a Scottish independence referendum. In an interview on Sky News's Murnaghan programme on Sunday, Salmond said that Scottish independence would involve "a positive relationship of equals" and that demands for England-only laws in Westminster to be decided just by English MPs were "thoroughly sensible".
"We will share a monarch, we will share a currency and, under our proposals, we will share a social union, but we won't have diktats from Westminster for Scotland and we won't have Scottish MPs poking their nose into English business in the House of Commons," said Salmond.
The data for the IPPR report was gathered in the summer, before the referendum row between David Cameron and Salmond, the leader of Scotland's devolved government,. It is the first significant investigation of such sentiment since the creation of the coalition in Westminster and the formation of Salmond's pro-independence administration.
The report, The Dog that Finally Barked: England as an Emerging Political Community, finds evidence of what the authors call a burgeoning "English political community", brought together in no small part by a sense that Scotland is getting a better deal from the UK.
A survey of English voters carried out for the report found 35% believe Scottish devolution has left the UK less well governed overall, a figure which has doubled since 2007. An even higher proportion, 45%, think devolution-led financial distinctions, such as free prescriptions and university education only for Scots, mean public money is unfairly distributed. Similarly, more than half of those asked said they think Scotland's economy benefits more than England's from being in the UK. Fewer than 25% believe the advantages are shared equally.
There remains limited support for full Scottish independence, backed by 22% of English voters. In contrast, four-fifths of those asked would support "devolution max", giving Scotland almost full fiscal autonomy. A similar number think Scottish MPs in Westminster should be prevented from voting on laws which affect just England. Backing for a distinct English parliament is similarly lukewarm, although just over half of the voters backed either this or the notion of "English voters on English laws".
The sense of not getting a fair deal is seemingly reflected in an upsurge in a sense of a primarily English identity: 40% of those polled see Englishness as more important to them than Britishness; just 16% take the opposite view. Such a phenomenon was apparent in all sections of English society apart from ethnic minority voters, but even here there were some early signs of a growth in a sense of specific Englishness, the report found.
While such resentments were on the rise, this new sentiment could still be "an open and inclusive political and cultural voice within a reformed United Kingdom", said Nick Pearce, IPPR director. He said: "Our mainstream political parties need to embrace Englishness, take it seriously, and find new ways of giving it political expression. It is not something to be feared or abandoned to those on the margins of right wing politics.
"There are those that fear that an engagement with a debate about England and Englishness will weaken the union, but the truth is the opposite. The longer this debate is ignored, or worse, denied, the more likely we will see a backlash within England against the UK."
There were clear signs of an increasingly politicized English identity, said Richard Wyn Jones, professor of politics at Cardiff University and one of the report's co-authors.
He said: "The more English a person feels the more likely they are to be dissatisfied with the way that the UK is being governed post-devolution, and the more likely they are to support the explicit recognition of an English dimension to their country's politics. Even if the form that this English dimension should take has yet to fully crystallize in the electorate's mind, this is arguably at least as much a failure on the part of the political class to lead a public debate on this increasingly important issue."
Eddie Bone, chairman of the Campaign for an English Parliament, said that the findings matched what his group had experienced. "This doesn't come as any surprise whatsoever," he said. "We noticed about 18 months ago a real change in the mood. We were no longer having to explain to people, as campaign group, the outward effects of devolution."
A key factor had been financial anomalies such as prescription charges and tuition fees, he said: "All of a sudden people were coming up to us on the street and saying, this is not fair. That's a common word."