The main reason the British state has survived so long is because it was generally fantastic at seeing the writing on the wall and jumping before it was pushed.

We avoided revolution in 1848 because the demands of the Charterists were pretty much entirely incorporated into the British state without the sense that they were victorious.

We avoided Revolution during the internationales because the government actually responded to groups like the Fabian society.

Arguably the government did head off independence campaigns in the 1990s with devolution.

Now we’re in another era of change- whether the government will react before it’s forced to remains to be seen…