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Helen Thompson is professor of political economy at Cambridge University and a regular on the Talking Politics podcast.
If Boris Johnson were to refuse another referendum, it would be harder to persuade Scottish voters that they are better served in the Union.
The pandemic has exposed our brittle belief in progress and undermined the assumption that science can save us from the rise-and-fall cycle of civilisation.
For both the Conservatives and Labour, the risk of shunning a deal with Brussels involves the further risk of allowing another Scottish referendum.
Lockdown was for too long allowed to be an existential space.
For two decades, cheap labour in China drove consumer prices down. But when goods are produced in a world of fear and geopolitical rivalry, their origins, not just their cost, really matter.
While the EU is fixated on avoiding economic retaliation during the Hong Kong crisis, the UK is joining the US in decoupling from China.
Months upon end in which the devolved executives have exercised powers in health and education has convinced ever more people that the Union should end.
Boris Johnson now leads a cabinet and parliamentary party that understands that his political strengths come with incongruous liabilities.
We face a sharply constrained recovery that could cost several million jobs – far beyond anything the UK suffered after 2008.
How the crisis has exposed the fragile state of the Union and turned the UK government into a de facto government of England.
