Devolution

Sleeping with an Elephant: Devolution and the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020

Author / Creator: Nicola McEwen

Media type: Article

Date published: 2022

The constitutional fall-out from Brexit has been dramatic and wide-ranging. The impact of withdrawal on devolution and the territorial constitutionis examined.


Constitutional reform: Controversy or Consensus on how the UK should be governed

Author / Creator: John Curtice

Media type: Opinion poll

Date published: 2022

A majority of people want electoral reform, and Scottish independence. Increasing support is being shown for Irish reunification and for changing the UK constitution.


The Smith Commission Report - Overview

Author / Creator: Scottish Parliament Information Centre

Media type: Report

Date published: 2015

Smith Commission report is analysed by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.


CAMPBELL II The second report of the Home Rule and Community Rule Commission

Author / Creator: Scottish Liberal Democrats

Media type: Report

Date published: 2014

The 2014 Scottish Liberal Democrats proposal for a Federal UK


Scotland in the United Kingdom: An enduring settlement

Author / Creator: UK Government

Media type: Report

Date published: 2015

The UK Government response to the Smith Commission


The Smith Commission; COSLA Convention Item 3

Author / Creator: COSLA

Media type: Report

Date published: 2014

The COSLA review of the implications of the Smith Commission report for local government.


Report of the Smith Commission for further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament

Author / Creator: Smith Commission

Media type: Report

Date published: 2014

Text of the Smith Commission report


Further Devolution Won’t Fix Scotland’s Democratic Malaise

Author / Creator: David Jamieson

Media type: Discussion Paper

Date published: 2022

further devolution is not a meaningful response to Scotland’s democratic impasse.


Worth the wait? Reforming Intergovernmental Relations

Author / Creator: Nicola McEwen

Media type: Review

Date published:

The Joint Ministerial Committee system of devolution is no more, replaced by a three-tier system of intergovernmental forums.


Respect and Co-operation: Building a Stronger Union for the 21st century

Author / Creator: Select Committee on the Constitution

Media type: Report

Date published:

Strengthening the Union requires a sensitivity to the pluralism of the the UK. Intergovernmental structures are inadequate to ensure devolution and the Union can be maintained.


Worth the wait? Reforming Intergovernmental Relations

Author / Creator: Nicola McEwen

Media type: Article

Date published:

Intergovernmental relations (IGR) have long been the weak link in the UK’s system of devolution. Overall, the reforms carry the potential for significant improvements to the system.


Brexit and Devolution: A New UK Settlement or the Break-Up of Britain?

Author / Creator: David Gow

Media type: Review

Date published: May 2018

An analysis of the constitutional conflict between Westminster and the devolved administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast...concludes that the UK faces a stark choice between a new political/constitutional settlement or the break-up of Britain.


State and Nation in the United Kingdom: The Fractured Union

Author / Creator: Michael Keating

Date published: 2021

The United Kingdom has often been seen as a unitary nation-state. This book argues that it should be understood as a multi national union in which the key elements of people, state, values and sovereignty are contested.


The Union Connectivity Review and Unionism

Author / Creator: Daniel Wincott

Media type: Article

Date published:

The Irish Sea Bridge is not the only example of the UK government being tempted to intervene unilaterally in devolved infrastructure plans.


The State of Scotland

Author / Creator: Neal Ascherson

Media type: Book

Date published: 2020

There can be no going back from devolution. But going forward from it could make the United Kingdom unrecognizable and project the old ‘British’ nations into a more modern and flexible relationship.


Devolution

Author / Creator: Malcolm Harvey

Media type: Book

Date published: 2020

Devolution has caused a de facto decentralisation of the UK, although such arrangements as the Sewel Convention can be over turned by the Westminster government.


Political Behaviour in Scotland

Author / Creator: Ailsa Henderson

Date published: 2020

Are Scottish voters more engaged with politics since the Referendum. Do they view Scottish Parliament elections as primary or Westminster ones?


Twin Tracks: Cultural and Political Nationalism after 1967

Author / Creator: Scott Hames

Media type: Book

Date published: 2020

The idea of Devolution arriving on a wave of artistic Renaissance and rising national ‘confidence’ is too simplistic, and obscures important disparities between the ‘twin tracks’ of cultural and political nationalism.


Scottish devolution at 20: some hits, some misses and that eternal maybe

Author / Creator: Christopher A Whatley

Media type: News Media

Date published:

Many hoped devolution would kill nationalism stone dead. Labour colleagues failed to grasp Scots’ powerful sense of nationhood. Although a Labour man argued that devolution could lead to independence. Alex Salmond  asserted that independence was “rendered inevitable when the Scottish parliament was established”. 


A Sign on the Road

Author / Creator: John S Warren

Media type: News Media

Date published:

A critique of "Strength in Union: The Case for the United Kingdom", and especially Alister Jack's view of Scotland in the Union.