{"title":"Between Two Unions","authors":"M. Keating","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198841371.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198841371.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"The devolution settlement of 1999 was introduced during UK membership of the European Union. The EU provided an external support system for it. Ideas of shared and divided sovereignty, on which the EU is (for many) based, complement similar interpretations of the United Kingdom as a union rather than a nation state. Like the UK, the EU has no fixed demos, telos, ethos or agreed locus of sovereignty; these are, rather, contested. The EU also provided for market integration through the internal market, obviating the need for internal market provisions in the devolution settlement. EU membership for both the UK and Ireland meant that the physical border could be dismantled. UK withdrawal from the EU therefore destabilizes the settlement, especially given the Remain majorities in Scotland and Northern Ireland. This has revived demands for Scottish independence and Irish reunification. There is a protocol allowing Northern Ireland to remain within the regulatory ambit of both the UK and the EU. A demand for similar provisions for Scotland was refused.","PeriodicalId":319256,"journal":{"name":"State and Nation in the United Kingdom","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122772929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Union","authors":"M. Keating","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198841371.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198841371.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"Unionists have defended the United Kingdom as a social or ‘sharing’ union in which resources are distributed according to need. It is true that income support payments and pensions are largely reserved and distributed across the union according to the same criteria. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are net beneficiaries. On the other hand, welfare has been detached from older understandings of social citizenship and ideas of the deserving and undeserving poor (strivers and skivers) have returned. Spending on devolved matters including health, education and social services is not equalized across the union. Instead, the Barnett Formula, based on historic spending levels and population-based adjustments, is used. Contrary to the claims of many unionists, there is no needs assessment underlying it, apart from a safeguard provision for Wales. The claim that the UK is a sharing union thus needs to be qualified.","PeriodicalId":319256,"journal":{"name":"State and Nation in the United Kingdom","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124974451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Economic Union","authors":"M. Keating","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198841371.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198841371.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"Unionism has stressed the benefits of economic union but this is an elusive concept. The United Kingdom was formed as part of a wider imperial market, committed historically to global free trade, not as a national market. Only from the 1930s did a closed national market and national development strategy emerge. From the 1970s, the UK formed part of the wider European market. Policies for territorial cohesion were introduced in the 1930s and greatly expanded in the 1960s, but from the 1980s these were largely abandoned in favour of a laissez-faire approach. The UK now has some of the largest territorial disparities in Europe. The 1999 settlement devolved most of the regional development powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The recent re-commitment to regional development on the part of the UK Government has not been accompanied by measures on the scale of those deployed in the 1970s.","PeriodicalId":319256,"journal":{"name":"State and Nation in the United Kingdom","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121113240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}