England next?

Anthony Barnett (London): And what about England? In the run up to the elections on the 300th anniversary of the Union Roger Scruton writes a mischievous openDemocracy article, more a ‘Don’t sleep’ than a 'wake up!’ call to England and Simon Heffer poses a brutal but still uncertain demand for the Tories to come out as England's party (he calls it a "wheeze"). Contrast them with the thoughts of Timothy Garton Ash. He wants to keep Britain united. Yet in Scruton and Heffer there is the breath, even if it is the bad breath, of democracy - a stirring of an appeal to the people and their representation. Garton Ash is sadder and more personal, a meditation on what we have inherited “by accident rather than design”. Where in all this is an energetic, forward looking democratic argument for Britain? Is it possible any more?