Governing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Abstract

Since the upsurge of political nationalism in Scotland and Wales in the late 1960s, and the onset of ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland in 1969, the territorial dimension has been a perennial feature of UK government and politics. There is little agreement even about what generic to use to describe the three areas. The government’s Official Handbook of the UK favours the term ‘national regions’ for Scotland and Wales, or simply ‘lands’ to designate the four parts of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) (Crick, 1991; Kellas, 1991a). ‘National region’ recognises nationality while denying a separate statehood, but leaves the door open to a share in a common statehood with the other constituent parts of the UK. Most Scots and Welsh nationalists reject such a designation, arguing that Wales and Scotland are nations without states. For them, the UK is essentially an ‘English’ state. Paradoxically, Northern Ireland is often referred to by Irish nationalists and their allies as a ‘state’; (namely, ‘the Northern Ireland state’), which does not have a nation (or at least a ‘legitimate’ one), attached to it.