No won this one comfortably, 32 votes to 22, an 18-point margin that puts federalism firmly in the "interesting idea, not this parliament" bin as far as this chamber is concerned. With 54 profiled voters it is a modest sample, but the shape of the result is clear enough.
The generational fracture is the story. Among 16-24s, just 8 strong, six backed a federation and only two didn't, a 75% yes rate that stands alone. Cross into 25-34, the largest bracket at 28 votes, and the picture flips hard: 36% yes, exactly the kind of number that drags a whole result down. Every band from 35 upward either split evenly or went No, though most are too thin to read as more than a straw in the wind.
It echoes the standard shape of British constitutional arguments since 2016: the young more willing to redraw the map, the middle-aged and older more attached to the settlement as it stands, whatever its imperfections. Gender adds a smaller wrinkle, with men slightly more federalist than women (42% versus 33%), but nothing like the age gap.
A unitary state with devolved bits, still, then — federalism remains a young person's cause on this evidence, not yet a national one.
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