LONDON (UK) – Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said if the United Kingdom is not fundamentally reformed it could swiftly become a failed state because of people losing faith in the way the country is governed by, and in the interests of, a London-centric elite.
Brown wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, “I believe the choice is now between a reformed state and a failed state,” “It is indeed Scotland where dissatisfaction is so deep that it threatens the end of the United Kingdom.”
“‘Whoever in London thought of that?’ is a common refrain, reflecting the frustration of people in outlying communities who feel they are the forgotten men and women, virtually invisible to Whitehall,” Brown, who served as Labour prime minister from 2007 to 2010, wrote.
The five-year Brexit crisis and the COVID-19 crisis have worsened the bonds that bring together England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland into a $3 trillion economy.
Brown said Prime Minister Boris Johnson should make changes to the way the United Kingdom is governed.
“Battered by Covid-19, threatened by nationalism, and uncertain what the promise of a post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’ adds up to, the United Kingdom must urgently rediscover what holds it together and sort out what is driving us apart,” he said.
