Devolution. Study of an extract from The Course of my Life: My Autobiography (Edward Heath)

Résumé du document

The text we are going to study is an extract from the autobiography of Edward Heath published in 1998 and entitled ?the course of my life: My autobiography'. Edward Heath was a member of Parliament; a leader of the Conservative party from 1965 to 1974 and Prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974. In this extract, we are going to Heath's thoughts on devolution, which is defined as the process whereby the central state gives most of its power to local governments. Devolution was indeed a very important issue in the British political life of the 1970's after the discovery of oil in North Sea, and the strong audience of nationalist parties. The period described in this text recounts around 8 years, from 1968 to 1976. This period saw the following Prime Ministers: Harold Wilson until 1970, Edward Heath until 1974, Wilson again from 1974 to 1976 and James Callaghan until 1979. To what extent can we say Devolution is a bone of contention and a necessity at the same time?

Extraits

[...] Indeed, the first are descendants of former Irish inhabitants, and the seconds are mainly descendants of English or Scottish colonists. The nationalists are mainly Roman Catholics and they want a greater autonomy or independence of Ireland from UK whereas the unionists were predominantly Protestants and they support a full constitutional and institutional relationship between Ulster and UK. The Northern Ireland State was head of by Protestant politicians elected by the Protestant majority of the country and they took the right of vote away from Catholics. [...]

[...] During the first reading of the bill in 1975, Heath made lots of proposals and criticisms. Indeed, according to him, there was a very important failure in the financial arrangements of the bill, then, he was in favour of a larger devolution and distribution of power between the central power and the decentralized powers. He wanted also a referendum to know if the Scots wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom or became independent. Heath in this text refers to the West Lothian question which was first posed by Tam Dalyell, Member of Parliament for the Scottish constituency of West Lothian and member of the Labour Party : "For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate . [...]

[...] The acknowledged goal of the nationalists became the liberation of Ireland from the British yoke. However, Protestant paramilitary militias were formed to defend the interests of the Protestant people. The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Forces), the LVF (Loyalist Volunteer Force) and the UDA (Ulster Defence Association) took as target members of the IRA, Sinn Féin (political wing of the IRA) and the civilians of the catholic community. A guerrilla type conflict followed, called with decency “Troubles” where explosions, shootings and other acts of war were made by the various protagonists. [...]

[...] Northern Ireland: a powder keg The first danger was the situation of civil war in Northern Ireland. After a war of independence which began in 1916 between the Irish Republican Army the British government and the unionist rioters (in particular bloody Easter) in the north, London agreed to negotiate with the IRA. London proposed a treaty with Irishmen: - The unionists, who are the majority in the 6 counties of north, would have their Parliament and their ministries but would remain in the United Kingdom. [...]

[...] The Conservative Party's U-turn The Conservative Party was during the leadership of Edward Heath, in favour of devolution and this before the Labour party. And we can see it, in the Declaration of Perth made in 1968 by Heath himself and in which he announced a party policy of support for devolution. Heath then formed a constitutional committee chaired (which means to preside) by former Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home. In 1970, this committee produced the "Scotland's Government", a report that recommended the creation of a Scottish Assembly with 125 elected members and powers to initiate and discuss bills. [...]