What binds the English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish?
Where do the English fit into the new Britain?
What does devolution mean for Black and Asian Britons?
Is devolution a challenge to British-ness, or the glue of shared institutions, interest and identities that bind the four nations of the United Kingdom?
Professor Charlie Jeffery, Director of the Devolution and Constitutional Change research programme, comments; “advocates see devolution as a way of renewing British-ness, as a tool for re-balancing a relationship between the Union and the four nations that had become fraught and was losing its unifying force. Opponents fear devolution will undermine the binding qualities of British-ness and weaken the Union. Others are concerned that devolution’s emphasis on the four nations – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – neglects ‘new’ Britons whose British-ness has other roots.
“The impact of devolution on British-ness has been a persistent theme in political debate about the programme of constitutional reform. Media commentators have queued up to offer their prognoses of what devolution means for British-ness - or Scottish-ness, or English-ness. Academic research across the social sciences and humanities – from the broad sweep of Norman Davies’ The Isles through to detailed social research – has revealed new understandings and indices of what British-ness is, and how it is changing.
“Though vibrant, these debates in politics, the media and research have largely talked past each other. They have also been territorially separated. What is important in London is not the same as in Cardiff or Edinburgh or even the rest of England,” added Professor Jeffery.
This conference will provide a forum to connect these debates, and to bring together their protagonists from across the UK. Among the speakers are Alex Salmond SNP, Dafydd Wigley AM and Austin Mitchell MP. Representatives from the business community, civil service and the NHS will also be present. These include Lord (Robin) Butler of Brockwell, former Cabinet Secretary and Brian Taylor of BBC Scotland.