Labour’s victory is good for Britain’s union of four countries

THE SYMBOLISM was unmissable. When Britain’s new prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, arrived in Downing Street on July 5th, he was greeted by activists waving the Union flag, the Scottish saltire and the Welsh Red Dragon. The union has had a tumultuous decade, beginning with the divisive referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 and peaking, post-Brexit, with the Conservative and Unionist Party putting a border in the Irish Sea. Now Sir Keir’s Labour Party is in power for the first time in 14 years. And once again it holds a majority of seats in each of the three countries of Great Britain.