Events
Book Launch: State & Nation in the United Kingdom
Monday 12 April | Online | 5pm
Join Michael Keating in conversation with Kezia Dugdale discussing his new book State and Nation in the United Kingdom: The Fractured Union.
In this book, Michael argues that the United Kingdom should be understood as a plurinational union in which the key issues of demos (the people), telos (the purpose of the states), ethos (values) and sovereignty have always been contested. It worked because multiple understandings could coexist. Understood this way, the United Kingdom was a good fit with the European Union, which shared these qualities. Brexit, on the other hand, was based on the need to restore the sovereignty of a unitary Parliament and people. Traditional unionism recognized national pluralism but insisted on parliamentary sovereignty and supremacy as the bedrock of the constitution. Since devolution, unionism has struggled to come to terms with the new dispensation. While progressively devolving powers, it has doubled down on Westminster sovereignty and sought to forge a new ideology of Britishness embodying all the higher values. Brexit has meant a further push to rebuild a unitary, sovereign state, and a significant reversal of devolution. Combined with the Remain majorities in Scotland and Northern Ireland this has unleashed centrifugal forces. Yet the UK can no more fall neatly into its component parts than it can cleanly extract itself from Europe.
Book your place on Eventbrite.
More information about the book can be found here.
Events Elsewhere
Scotland and Independence referendums
Online | Tuesday 13 April | 5pm
Are Britain's Structures for Government Still Fit for Purpose?
Online | Wednesday 28 April | 5.30pm
Past events
25 March 2021 The politics of constitutional reform and secession in Canada and Spain
21 January 2021 Constitutional Debates: Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot
10 December 2020 Covid-19 and the future of devolution in England
28 October 2020 Referendum without Consent? Insights from Catalonia
23 September 2020 UK and the Internal Market - implications for devolution and the Union
6 August 2020 Brexit and the Borders - the Northern Ireland Protocol
24 June 2020 Brexit - where are we heading now?
26 June 2019 "Benelux Britain". A talk by Adam Price AM, Leader of Plaid Cymru
28 January 2019 Brexit: What Now? What Next? Watch the highlights on Wakelet.