In his Bloomberg column on 14 February 2021, Hastings claimed that the United Kingdom's future was unlikely to be long-term. He advocated a United Ireland, but said he was against Scottish and Welsh independence. Hastings was widely criticised for claiming in the article that the Welsh language was of "marginal value" and that Wales could not succeed as an independent country because it was "dependent on English largesse". One critic wrote: "For the non-English part of the UK that is ... the most integrated with England, it's pretty astonishing how many English commentators have exactly zero political clue about Wales."