1. Territorial identity and constitutional change in the UK
Managing difference:
Territorial identity and constitutional change in the UK

2. Recap: States ‘manage’ or handle ‘difference’ in different ways:
Elite accommodation, power-sharing & consociational democracy are one way
Devolution, decentralization, federalism are another
Appropriate to some but not all circumstances
Can recreate the problem in a different way

3. Other strategies include:
Suppressing it
Dissolving it an larger & more diverse society
E.g allowing cross-cutting cleavages to dissipate conflicts
Fusing into a new identity
Accommodating it minor, or even major, ways

4. UK Long history of constitutional change Yet somehow amorphous:
No founding moment
No single document
Instead, a constitution which has accumulated
And changes in different ways:
Sometimes response to circumstances
Sometimes response to pressure
Or culmination of conflict
Sometimes ‘evolves’
Occasionally by design

5. Examples Magna Carta Bill of Rights Act of Settlement
Reform Bill of 1832 (The Great Reform Bill)
Parliament Act of 1911
Home Rule
Devolution
Reform of House of Lords, Courts

6. UK as a union state Origins in extending control:
Wales (incorporated )
Act of Union (1707) brings Scotland under the English Parliament
Act of Union (1801) incorporates Ireland
Presumption:
All can be governed under a single parliament
But not necessarily in the same way or with the same laws

7. Accommodating Scotland
Scots surrender their parliament in 1707, but
Retain their own church
Their own legal & educational system
Their own currency

8. The Scottish Office Established in 1885
Replaces various local boards
Secretary for Scotland from 1892
Secretary of State from 1926 (cabinet rank)
A form of administrative devolution
Laws were made in Westminster
Reviewed by Scottish MPs in the Scottish Grand Committee
But administered from Edinburgh by the Scottish Office

9. Quid pro quos Scotland over-represented in Westminster National story:
Had a disproportionate # of MPs
Now reduced, but not entirely
National story:
A Union State
Union Jack
Great Britain rather than England
Scots are partners in the British Empire
They run it

10. Asymmetrical union Wales brought in earlier
Conquest in 13th c
Incorporation
Some accommodation to language & religion
But Welsh Office and Secretary of State for Wales not established until 1964
Narrower competence than Scottish Office

11. Today
Competences of Welsh Assembly narrower than the Scottish Parliament:
No tax varying powers
can pass only secondary rather than primary legislation

12. Ireland: A failure of accommodation?
Under Lord Protector
Colonization
Act of Union (1801) fails to deliver Catholic emancipation
19th c political reforms extend suffrage
Enable Irish to organize
accord a measure of power:
under Parnell, Irish MPs hold the balance

13. Home Rule British fail to grant home rule in timely fashion: 1885
attempt under Gladstone splits Liberals
Liberal Unionists join Conservatives
: Almost there but
Curragh Mutiny (1914) –
encouraged by A. Bonar Law (Leader of the opposition
Ulster Protestants mobilize & arm
WW I intervenes
1920 & beyond: too little, too late?

14. Some questions: Why could the UK accommodate Scotland but not Ireland?
Partnership in the Empire?
Separate legal & educational system provide opportunities for elites to advance
Mediating role of Scottish office

15. But, Was this ‘Scottish settlement’ deliberate or by chance?
Is this a good way to do constitutional change?
Could a similar settlement have worked in Ireland?
Could the British deliver it?
Why did the Scottish settlement come unstuck?