Devolution did not save the Union. It replaced it with a half-union that is neither fully united nor fully separate. You cannot manufacture belonging. If Scotland wants to leave it should leave. If it stays, it stays in a real Union, one parliament, one political author. End the fudge. Accept where people actually stand and move on. No more Half-United Kingdom.

I’ve been thinking about a different social contract for Britain. Treat every British citizen as a shareholder in the "Estate of the United Kingdom". From 18, every citizen gets a modest National Dividend. It rises or falls with national prosperity. No triple lock. No guaranteed ratchet. Then build an earned "Contribution Stake" from taxes actually paid and years contributed. Parenthood should count too. Raising future British citizens is a real contribution to the country, so mothers and primary carers should build contribution credits while raising children instead of being treated as economically inactive. That could make motherhood a viable vocation again for British citizens, support larger families, and reduce the strange bias towards subsidising institutional childcare over parental care. On top of that, every citizen can build a voluntary personal retirement pot that is genuinely theirs and inheritable. Need stays separate. Disability, housing and destitution remain targeted support because those are questions of need, not ownership. The long-term funding comes from a National Fund. Put North Sea revenues, Crown Estate commercial surplus, spectrum auctions, privatisation proceeds, land sales and part of genuine budget surpluses into it. Never borrow to buy assets and pretend that is national wealth. Reinvest for 10–15 years. Then spend only a sustainable real return. Never routinely touch the principal. Existing pensioners keep a secure legacy pension, CPI-linked. Near-retirees are protected. Younger generations transition gradually onto the new system. So the settlement becomes: Citizenship gives you a share. Work builds your stake. Raising children counts as contribution (as you are creating future contributors). Saving builds your property. Need receives assistance. Each generation leaves the national estate stronger than it found it. Older generations get security. Younger generations get ownership, aspiration and a direct stake in national growth. AND Britain stops treating mass immigration as the automatic answer to demographic decline when it could instead make family formation and citizen renewal economically possible.