Constitutional Crisis in the United Kingdom: Scotland and the Devolution Controversy

1977 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Meadows
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Home Rule ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
Constitutional Issue

The United Kingdom, already beleaguered in the mid-1970's by a number of serious problems—economic, social, political, diplomatic and even climatic—in addition has had to contend with a far-reaching constitutional crisis. Involving the subject of devolution of power (better known as home rule), it has been described as “the most crucial constitutional issue which has confronted the United Kingdom since it came into being.” The controversy over devolution has reached a new level of intensity since November, 1975, when the government, in an effort to resolve the dispute, published a White Paper entitled Our Changing Democracy: Devolution to Scotland and Wales. This article examines the following aspects of the devolution issue: its background, why it has emerged at this time, why the White Paper was issued, reasons for the hostile reaction to the White Paper, the prospects for parliamentary passage of devolution legislation, and the issue's political repercussions and implications, both domestic and international.

Topical Pension Problems (A Personal Overview).

1985 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 115-133
Author(s):  
Geraldine Kaye
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Pension Funds ◽  
National Association ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
British Industry ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
Different Sources

Much discussion is taking place currently in the United Kingdom on the subject of pensions. Conferences and symposia have been conducted at various times on many aspects of pensions by such diverse bodies as the Policy Studies Institute (1), the Institute of Fiscal Studies (2), the Trades Union Congress (3), the Pensions Management Institute, the Confederation of British Industry, the National Association of Pension Funds and even our own Institute (4) (in the case of our Institute, on the whole field). The Government announced an all-embracing enquiry on 16 December 1983. This has been divided into separate parts. Evidence for the first part concerned with ‘portable pensions’ was required by 31 January 1984. Despite the very tight deadline, written evidence was obtained from over 1,500 different sources. This serves to show just how much interest was currently being aroused. The final results of the full Government enquiry are not yet available (September 1984). The unprecedented speed with which the Government has proceeded demonstrates the importance that it attaches to the issues raised, and suggests that any prompted legislation will be given a degree of priority.

III. British Plans

1945 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 1137-1147
Author(s):  
W. Hardy Wickwar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
The United States ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Productive Capacity ◽  
Employment Policy ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Government

The United Kingdom has gone considerably farther than the United States in the acceptance of full employment as one of the prime aims of government policy. There is a widespread feeling that it may also have gone farther in devising governmental machinery for the realization of this aim. On both counts—the end and the means—the present trend in the United Kingdom merits attention in the United States and other countries.Official endorsement of full employment as a proper end for governmental policy dates back to 1944. The much-quoted white paper on Employment Policy was presented to Parliament by Lord Woolton, Minister of Reconstruction in the Churchill coalition, a few days before D-day. It began with the unequivocal statement: “The Government accept as one of their primary aims and responsibilities the maintenance of a high and stable level of employment after the war.” Shortly afterwards, at the conclusion of a three-day debate, the House of Commons passed a resolution moved by Laborite Ernest Bevin, then Minister of Labor and National Service, and supported on the side of the Conservatives by Sir John Anderson as Chancellor of the Exchequer: “That this House … welcomes the declaration of His Majesty's Government….” At no time later has this basic commitment been placed in doubt.Acceptance of full employment in business circles might be illustrated by a number of authoritative pronouncements made in the middle of the war. These include a pamphlet entitled The Problem of Unemployment, issued by Lever Brothers and Unilever Limited at the beginning of 1943. Here it was clearly argued that irregularity of capital investment was the principal cause of unemployment; that the profit motive had proved an insufficient guide in the extension of productive capacity; and that it was the task of government to regularize the incentive to investment by the use of indirect controls.

The United Kingdom and the Beginning of the Mandates System, 1919–1922

1969 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
WM. Roger Louis
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
World War I ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
Good Opportunity ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Legal Questions ◽  
Supreme Council ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government

The decision of the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference in January 1919 to place the German colonies and Turkish territories under the supervision of the League of Nations raised serious political and legal questions to which no one had satisfactory answers. But, by contrast with the numerous recent studies of World War I and the Peace Conference that deal at least in passing with the origins and establishment of the mandates system, there are very few satisfactory scholarly essays that analyzer the aftermath of the Peace Conference's deliberations on international colonial affairs. The opening of the archives of the government of the United Kingdom after 1919 provides a good opportunity to review the subject and to examine what the unpublished records reveal about international supervision in colonial areas.

British Council as an Instrument of Public Diplomacy of Great Britain

2017 ◽  
pp. 305-312
Author(s):  
Mykola Trofymenko
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Foreign Minister ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
British Council ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government

Public diplomacy of Great Britain is one of the most developed in the EU and in the world. The United Kingdom has developed an extremely efficient public diplomacy mechanism which includes BBC World Service (which due to its popularity boosts the reputation and the image of Great Britain), Chevening Scholarships (provides outstanding foreign students with opportunity to study in Great Britain and thus establishes long-lasting relations with public opinion leaders and foreign countries elite) and the British Council, which deals with international diplomatic ties in the field of culture. The British Council is a unique organization. Being technically independent, it actively and efficiently works on consolidating Great Britain’s interests in the world and contributes to the development of public diplomacy in Great Britain.   The author studies the efforts of the British Council as a unique public diplomacy tool of the United Kingdom. Special attention is paid to the role of British Council, which is independent of the governing board and at the same time finds itself under the influence of the latter due to the peculiarities of the appointment of Board’s officials, financing etc. The author concludes that the British Council is a unique organization established in 1934, which is a non-departmental state body, charitable organization and public corporation, technically independent of the government. The British Council, thanks to its commercial activities covers the lack of public funding caused by the policy of economy conducted by the government. It has good practices in this field worth paying attention by other countries. It is also worth mentioning that the increment in profit was getting higher last year, however the issue of increasing the influence of the government on the activities of British Council is still disputable. Although the Foreign Minister officially reports to the parliament on the activities of the British Council, approves the appointment of the leaders of organizations, the British Council preserves its independence of the government, which makes it more popular abroad, and makes positive influence on the world image of Great Britain. The efficiency of the British Council efforts on fulfillment of targets of the United Kingdom public diplomacy is unquestionable, no matter how it calls its activities: whether it is a cultural relations establishment or a cultural diplomacy implementation. Keywords: The British Council, public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, cultural relations, Foreign Office, Her Majesty’s Government, official assistance for development

CAPITAL MAINTENANCE: A NEGLECTED NOTION

1987 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar S. Gellein
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Capital Maintenance ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Subject

This paper traces in descriptive fashion some of the developments of thought about capital maintenance during this century. The adverse consequences of neglecting the subject are mentioned after a basic review of the concepts. Contrasts among the theories from the United Kingdom and Ireland, Canada, Australia and other countries are also made.

How the United Kingdom Controls Pharmaceutical Prices and Spending: Learning From Its Experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 002073142199709
Author(s):  
Marc A. Rodwin
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Generic Market ◽  
Pharmaceutical Spending ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Government ◽  
Pharmaceutical Prices ◽  
Limit Access

To control costs and improve access, nations can adopt strategies employed in the United Kingdom to control pharmaceutical prices and spending. Current policy evolved from a system created in 1957 that allowed manufacturers to set launch prices, capped manufacturers’ rates of return, and later cut list prices. These policies did not effectively control spending and had limited effects on purchase prices. The United Kingdom currently controls pharmaceutical spending in 4 ways. (a) Since 1999, it has typically paid no more than is cost-effective. (b) Since 2017, for medicines that will have a significant budget impact, National Health Service England seeks discounts from cost-effective prices or seeks to limit access for 2 years to patients with the greatest need. (c) Since 2014, statutes and a voluntary scheme have required branded manufacturers to pay the government rebates to recoup the difference between the global pharmaceutical budget and actual spending. (d) For hospitals, generics and some patented drugs are procured through competitive bidding; community pharmacies are reimbursed through a system that provides an incentive to beat average generic market prices. These policies controlled the growth of spending, with the largest effects following budget controls in 2014. Changes since 2008 have reduced savings, first by paying more than is cost-effective for cancer drugs and then by applying higher cost-effectiveness thresholds for some drugs used to treat cancer and certain other drugs.

The Little Manx Nation: Antiquarianism, Ethnic Identity, and Home Rule Politics in the Isle of Man, 1880–1918

2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Belchem
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
General Meeting ◽  
Irish Sea ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Home Rule ◽  
Isle Of Man ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Victorian Period ◽  
The Irish Sea ◽  
Frank Kermode

As imperial pride flourished in the racial discourse of late Victorian British politics, ethnic revival and Celtic nationalism also gained purchase and resonance. These complex and seemingly competing issues of identity extended beyond the “four nations” of the United Kingdom to the Isle of Man, a crown dependency constitutionally outside the United Kingdom but at the very center of the British Isles. In this “land of home rule,” adrift in the Irish Sea, the juxtaposition of Britishness and Celticism was particularly acute, compounded by the proud persistence of Norse traditions. Manx independence within the Atlantic archipelago was symbolized by the annual Tynwald Day ceremony, a Viking “Thing” or general meeting, at which the year's new legislation was promulgated in both English and Manx Gaelic. In the late Victorian period, as Anglo-Manx business syndicates invested heavily in the “visiting industry,” transforming the island into “one large playground for the operatives of Lancashire and Yorkshire,” gentlemanly antiquarians constructed (and/or invented) the necessary traditions to safeguard Manx cultural distinctiveness and its devolved political status. Through the assertion of Celticism, a project that tended to downgrade Norse contributions to the island's past, the little Manx nation girded itself against cultural anglicization, yet remained unquestionably loyal to the British empire.Slightly other than English, the Manx have displayed what Sir Frank Kermode has described as “mild alienation” and “qualified foreignness,” characteristics that need to be considered in the wider debate about British identity.

III. On the figure, dimensions, and mean specific gravity of the Earth, as derived from the ordnance trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland

1857 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 111-116 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Specific Gravity ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Government

The Trigonometrical Survey of the United Kingdom commenced in the year 1784, under the immediate auspices of the Royal Society; the first base was traced by General Roy on the 16th of April of that year, on Hounslow Heath, in presence of Sir Joseph Banks, then President of the Society, and some of its most distinguished Fellows. The principal object which the Government had then in view, was the connexion of the Observatories of Paris and Greenwich by means of a triangulation, for the purpose of determining the difference of longitude between the two observatories.

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