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The European issue has deeply penetrated British politics by becoming the symbolic other for a growing Little England nationalism and by reinforcing Scottish and Welsh demands for greater autonomy from centralised London rule. This week the Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones warned at a British-Irish Council meeting in Cardiff that a UK withdrawal from the European Union would have disastrous consequences for foreign investment, social policies and agriculture in Wales. He called for a constitutional convention on the future of the UK, supporting a federalising agenda for its changing polity.