About The Union Question

The Union Question is an independent English-language publication about Scotland's constitutional debate. Its name refers to the question that has run through British politics for more than a century: what kind of union, if any, should bind Scotland to the rest of the United Kingdom?

What we publish

• Explainers: referendums, parliamentary votes, court rulings and the Catalan crisis of 2017, told in order and with figures.
• Arguments: the main claims made in the debate, from civic nationalism to the role of the media, set out fairly and checked against evidence.
• Events in context: rallies, observation missions and the way campaign groups organise, treated as history rather than announcements.
• Background: the 2014 referendum, its aftermath and proposals for reforming the Union.

We pay particular attention to subjects that general coverage often leaves aside: the place of the hundreds of thousands of people born in England who live in Scotland, the effect of Brexit on devolution, and comparisons with other European cases.

How the articles are researched

• Evidence first. Each article closes with the documents it draws on: statutes, parliamentary records, court judgments, official statistics, academic studies and press reports, with links when they exist online.
• Two readings where there are two. When unionists and supporters of independence draw different conclusions from the same figures, both interpretations are given.
• No invention. The editors write collectively under the publication's name. We quote only what was said, describe only what happened, and mention real people only in the public capacity that sources record.
• Errors fixed openly. Mistakes reported to the editors are corrected, and substantive changes are noted at the foot of the article.

What we are not

The Union Question is a publication, not a movement. It does not campaign for or against independence, does not speak for any group of voters, organises no events and has no members, branches, forums or shop. It has no link with any party, campaign group, government or newspaper mentioned on the site, and it carries no advertising, sponsorship or affiliate links.

About this domain

Until a few years ago, englishscotsforyes.org was the address of a different project's website. That project has no part in The Union Question. We acquired the lapsed domain to host a new publication of our own, which neither reuses the old site's texts, name, logo or design nor claims to continue its work or speak on its behalf. Where an old address was still linked from elsewhere, it now leads to a newly written article on the same subject, so that readers who follow those links find something useful.

Images and legal information

The photographs used here are either public domain or freely licensed; each caption names its author and licence, and the credits page lists them all. The legal notice and the privacy statement cover publisher, hosting and data.