Social citizenship in an age of welfare regionalism. The state of the social unions: by Mark Simpson, Hart, Oxford, 2022, 198+xxi pp, £76.50. 241pp.

While both the UK and Scotland emphasise "fairness", the UK Government mostly means fairness to taxpayers while the Scottish Government emphasises fairness to beneficiaries. There is no doubt that Scottish politicians, notably but not exclusively on the nationalist side, have promoted the idea of Scotland as a "caring society" and, as Simpson notes, for most of the time since devolution, the Scottish Government has consisted of a social democratic government facing a social democratic opposition. Northern Ireland would follow welfare provision in Great Britain and the UK Government would pick up the bill. [Extracted from the article]