Saving the Union? Whitehall and the Scottish independence referendum

Mon 30 September 2024

McGrath Centre

Ten years ago the Scottish independence referendum posed an unprecedented and potentially existential challenge to the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom. In this talk, Philip Rycroft, Former Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union, will give an insider’s perspective on how Whitehall responded and will examine what that response reveals about the structures, competence and expectations of the British state. The UK emerged from the referendum intact, but have the lessons of that turbulent campaign been absorbed into the British body politic?

Philip Rycroft will be joined in conversation by journalist, Peter Geoghegan.
Professor Diane Coyle will introduce the evening.

All guests are invited to stay for a drinks reception following the event.

Guest speaker: Philip Rycroft

Philip Rycroft was a civil servant for 30 years. He worked in the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) between March 2017 – March 2019, including as Permanent Secretary from October 2017. He was responsible for leading the department’s work to prepare the Government for Brexit. Throughout his career, Philip has worked in a variety of other roles, including in the civil service in Scotland and London, in the European Commission, and in the private sector. He is now a non-executive director, academic, consultant, and a Distinguished Honorary Researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy and POLIS, Cambridge.

Chair: Peter Geoghagen

Peter Geoghagen, Irish writer, broadcaster and journalist based in the UK, writes the ‘Democracy for Sale’ newsletter on Substack and his journalism has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the London Review of Books and many other publications. He was formerly editor-in-chief at the award-winning website openDemocracy. Peter’s books include ‘The People’s Referendum: Why Scotland Will Never Be the Same Again’ and the Sunday Times best-selling Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics, published in August 2020 by Head of Zeus.

Welcome: Professor Diane Coyle DBE

Professor Dame Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. Diane co-directs the Bennett Institute where she heads research under the themes of progress and productivity.