Federalism in the United Kingdom

Treaty of Union

Whilst English monarchs had had varying degrees of control around the Isles from the Norman Era, for example conquering Wales and parts of Ireland, and Wars in Scotland, the kingdoms remained separate entities, with the exception of the Principality of Wales being annexed into England in the 16th century. However, in 1603 Queen Elizabeth I of England died childless, meaning that the crown of England passed to James VI of Scotland, her first cousin twice removed, who became James I of England. This did not unify the two countries politically, however, and whilst England and Scotland remained in a personal union with the same head of state, their parliaments and institutions remained separate and independent of each other. England and Scotland, after the War of the Three Kingdoms, were briefly united during the Interregnum under the Commonwealth, but after the restoration of Charles II this was repealed. The 1707 Acts of Union, however, was passed by both the Parliaments of England and of Scotland putting the Treaty of Union into effect, and unified the two kingdoms into the Kingdom of Great Britain, with a single parliament, albeit with differing legal systems. The further Acts of Union 1800 unified the Kingdoms of Great Britain and of Ireland into the single United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a newly unified parliament.

Provinces proposed by the Redcliffe-Maud Report

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Irish home rule was a divisive political issue. The First and Second Home Rule Bills failed to pass the UK Parliament. The Third Home Rule Bill was introduced in 1912 by Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, intended to provide home-rule in Ireland, and with some proposals for further home rule in Scotland, Wales, and areas of England.[2][3] The implementation of the Bill was, however, delayed by the outbreak of world war. At war's end the UK government, responding to northern Irish Protestant lobbying, passed a fourth Fourth Home Rule Bill, which divided Ireland into a six county Northern Ireland and a twenty-six county Southern Ireland, each with its own parliament and judiciary. The Southern Parliament only met once: London acknowledged the independence of southern Ireland (as the Irish Free State), albeit within the British Commonwealth, at the end of 1921. The Northern Ireland Parliament remained until 1972, when it was abolished due to sectarian conflict in the Troubles.[1]

The 1966-1969 Redcliffe-Maud Report recommended the abolition of all existing two-tier councils and council areas in England, and replacing them with 58 new unitary authorities alongside three metropolitan areas (Merseyside, 'Selnec', and the West Midlands). This would have been grouped into eight provinces, each with a provincial council. Whilst the report was initially accepted "in principle" by the government,[4] after the 1970 General Election the plan was largely abandoned, although some proposals such as moving Slough into Berkshire and Bournemouth into Dorset were implemented in the 1974 local government reorganisation, and unitary authorities have become more commonplace since. In 1994, England was for statistical purposed divided into nine regions, which were broadly similar to the proposed provinces of Redcliffe-Maud, but with the notable addition of Greater London as a region of its own separate from South East England, and some counties being reassigned from one region to another. As well as acting as European Parliamentary Constituencies, between 1994 and 2011 these regions had some devolved functions, for example in the case of regional chambers.

The 1998 Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement) established the Northern Ireland Assembly, based on power-sharing between the nationalist and unionist communities. Around the same time, the newly-elected Labour Government under Prime Minister Tony Blair held referenda in Scotland, Wales, and Greater London on devolved institutions. All the referenda were successful, leading to the creation of the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales, and Greater London Authority.

Map of current local administrative units in the United Kingdom

A further development in devolution was the 2004 North East England Devolution Referendum, which failed by a large margin. The original proposal was alongside planned referenda in North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber, but these were cancelled after the referendum in the North East failed.[5] The proposal, as well as facilitating an elected assembly, would have also reorganised local government in the area. After the failure of this proposal, the concept of city regions was later pursued. The 2009 Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act provided the means for the creation of combined authorities based upon city regions, a system providing cooperation between authorities and a single directly elected mayor. The first such, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, was established in 2011, followed by four in 2014, two in 2016, two in 2017, and one in 2018, with further proposals for other conurbations. In 2014, the Scottish Independence Referendum was held. Scotland voted to remain within the UK under the rubric of Devolution Max. This culminated in the Scotland Act of 2016 which, both declared that Scotlands devolved institutions were permanent and granted the Scottish Parliament and government powers over, most notably, taxation and welfare.[6]

• Liberal Democrats[24]

• Scotland:
  • Scottish Liberal Democrats[25]
  • Scottish Labour[26]
• Wales:
  • Welsh Liberal Democrats[27]