Is Britain now a federal state?

Whether the UK is movingtowardsa federal state is the source of much debate. Since the Scottish devolution in 1999, the new system has been described as quasi-federal by researchers such as Vernon Bogdanor (1999), Peter John (2011) and David Torrance (2015). However, it seems that devolution is not an effective way to solve the conflicts between Scottish parliament and the British parliament, and even results in the ‘West Lothian question’ (Tam Dalyell, 2000). Some researchers such as David Marquand(2006), Andrew Blick (2015) and statesmen such as Boris Johnson (2015) and Kenny MacAskill (2016) started to recognise federalism as a new settlement of British constitutional problems. The calling for federalism from public is increasing as well, and some commentators such as Lianna Brinded (2015) even claimed that Britain was virtually moving towards federalism.