Westminster has taken a great constitutional leap in the dark, with the creation of a Scottish parliament and legislative assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland. This collection of essays provides the historical context for the constitutional challenges facing the United Kingdom.
They explain how parlimentary sovereignty has for so long benefited the English people in particular, while creating major problems for the other constituent parts of the British Isles and for Britain’s colonial territories overseas. Eight of the essays explain Scotland’s relations with the Westminster parliment from before the Union of 1707, through centuries of semi-independence, to the prolonged efforts to return legislative power to Scotland. Other essays explain how Wales, the American colonies and the White-settled Dominions accepted or rejected the authority of parliment and, in particular, why Ireland has for so long remained the most difficult political and constitutional challenge facing Westminster.
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