The country has never been asked. The precedent of Northern Ireland There is a precedent. In March 1973 a referendum was held in Northern Ireland. The electorate was presented with two proposals: 1. Do you want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom? or 2. Do you want …

Without this principle of democratic consent, Parliament is empowered to make fundamental changes to how Britain governs itself. Parliament overturned the practice of the past fifty years; it crossed a constitutional Rubicon. Unless this is checked, the real winner of the Referendum was Westminster itself. The surprisingly large vote for …

1. The flag Many argued that the result of the independence referendum was irrelevant to the continuation of the name and flag for the current United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. If Scotland became independent, it had promised to retain a “Social Union” with the rest of the …

Consent for The Vow? Of course none of this would have happened had the UK political establishment remotely expecte Scotland to vote for independence or come anywhere close to it. Great Britain paid a heavy price for this naivety. Not for the first time, the desire to do what is …

Consultation A legal process was followed for the referendum. Legislation by the UK Parliament was necessary as the devolution legislation specifically denied the Scottish Parliament the power to decide on independence, amongst other things. These were the “reserved matters” (section 29 of the Scotland Act 1998). There was consultation. A …

In 2007, the SNP took power in Scotland, forming a minority government. Their leader, Alex Salmond, proved to be a persuasive and powerful First Minister. The Scots liked it. The Scots had a respected voice and stronger identity. The Labour alternative (the Conservatives remained largely anathema to Scottish voters), had had their chance …

In the twenty years that followed the 1992 general election, debate on the constitutional framework of the country and ultimately on the Scottish independence referendum was conveniently limited to “The UK”, “the Union” or “the United Kingdom” but not “Great Britain”. This was new. As we shall see below, the …

Great Britain has been forgotten before. Without a hint of irony, the world, academics, politics and most of its citizens called the UK “England” for most of its history. Even the great historian AJP Taylor recited his English History without the slightest embarrassment that the story he was retelling was …

It is time for a Believe in Britain campaign. Purpose In recent decades we have seen the growth of regional and national identities. There is the obvious growth of SNP and demands for Scottish independence, but also in Wales – Plaid Cymru now take part in UK-wide general election TV …

What is the name of your country? A simple question. To those citizens of the islands north of France there are now many answers – the United Kingdom, Scotland, the Republic of Ireland, Wales, Northern Ireland, England, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Cornwall? There are in fact two …