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Preserving the union

05 August 2022 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7990 / Categories: Opinion , Constitutional law
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Won’t anyone think about the constitution, asks Roger Smith

We will know soon enough the Tory party leader to succeed Boris Johnson. We know already the horrendous list of challenges that they will face: the Ukraine war, climate change, cost of living crisis, fuel costs, levelling up, NHS collapse. But there is one more. This might beguilingly look as if it can be ignored for the time being. But, it can’t. The future constitution of the UK is in play—whether we like it or not.

The English are particularly obtuse at understanding that the UK is not synonymous with them. By contrast, I have a particular sensitivity on this issue. I spent five years of my school life in endless re-enactments of a selective view of the great Anglo-Scottish battles of the past. I represented the invading and invariably defeated English. Somehow, the school bell always rang before we could get to the bloody defeats of Flodden and Culloden. All this was fuelled by classroom drawings of Robbie the Bruce watching the intrepid spider

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Muckle LLP—Rachael Chapman

Muckle LLP—Rachael Chapman

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Ellisons—Carla Jones

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Freeths—Louise Mahon

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One in five in-house lawyers suffer ‘high’ or ‘severe’ work-related stress, according to a report by global legal body, the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)
The Legal Ombudsman’s (LeO’s) plea for a budget increase has been rejected by the Law Society and accepted only ‘with reluctance’ by conveyancers
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Two speedier and more streamlined qualification routes have been launched for probate and conveyancing professionals
Workplace stress was a contributing factor in almost one in eight cases before the employment tribunal last year, indicating its endemic grip on the UK workplace
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