Politics of England

As England is also by far the largest in terms of area and GDP, its relationship to the UK is somewhat different from that of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

The Parliament of the United Kingdom is located in London, as is its civil service, HM Treasury and most of the official residences of the monarchy.

Hollister argues that: In 1066, William of Normandy brought a feudal system, where he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws.

In 1215, the tenants-in-chief secured the Magna Carta from King John, which established that the king may not levy or collect any taxes (except the feudal taxes to which they were hitherto accustomed), save with the consent of his royal council, which slowly developed into a parliament.

Amidst fears of a Roman Catholic succession, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed James II (James VII of Scotland) in favour of the joint rule of Mary II and William III, whose agreement to the English Bill of Rights introduced a constitutional monarchy, though the supremacy of the Crown remained.

Towards the end of the 18th century the monarch still had considerable influence over Parliament, which was dominated by the English aristocracy and by patronage, but had ceased to exert direct power: for instance, the last occasion Royal Assent was withheld, was in 1708 by Queen Anne.

At general elections the vote was restricted to freeholders and landowners, in constituencies that were out of date, so that in many "rotten boroughs" seats could be bought while major cities remained unrepresented.

Now that many Scottish matters are dealt with by the Scottish Parliament, the fact that MPs representing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can not vote on those issues as they affect Scotland, but can vote on those same issues as they affect England caused some disquiet.

For many years an anomaly known as the West Lothian question where MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are able to vote on matters which only affect England only when those same issues are devolved to their own institutions and has become a major issue in recent years.

After 1539, however, only the archbishops and bishops continued to attend, for the Dissolution of the Monasteries suppressed the positions of abbot and prior.

In 1642, during the English Civil War, the Lords Spiritual were excluded altogether, but they returned under the Clergy Act 1661.

Membership of the House of Lords also extends to the 21 longest-serving other diocesan bishops of the Church of England.

A referendum was held in North East England on 4 November 2004 but the proposal for an elected assembly was rejected.

In 2017 elections were held for Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, the Tees Valley, West of England and the West Midlands as part of the devolution deals allowed by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016.

[12][13] In 2022, Labour also proposed a similar body to be known as the "Council of England", chaired by the prime minister, to bring together combined authority mayors, representatives of local government and other stakeholders.

When the county councils were abolished the metropolitan districts gained much of their powers and therefore function similar to other unitary authorities.

Lord Falconer, a Scottish peer claimed a devolved English parliament would dwarf the rest of the United Kingdom.

Of the forty-four diocesan archbishops and bishops in the Church of England, twenty-six are permitted to sit in the House of Lords.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York automatically have seats, as do the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester.

[23] The historic county of Monmouthshire, lying in the Welsh Marches (the Anglo-Welsh border), is a bone of contention for some English nationalists.

The entirety of Wales was made part of the Kingdom of England by the Statute of Rhuddlan, but did not adopt the same civil governance system, with the area of Monmouthshire being under the control of Marcher Lords.

The Laws in Wales Act 1542 specifically enumerates the Welsh counties as twelve in number, excluding Monmouthshire from the count.

The issue was finally clarified in law by the Local Government Act 1972, which provided that "in every act passed on or after 1 April 1974, and in every instrument made on or after that date under any enactment (whether before, on or after that date) "Wales", subject to any alterations of boundaries..." included "the administrative county of Monmouthshire and the county borough of Newport".

However, the issue has not gone completely away, and the English Democrats nominated candidates for the 2007 Welsh Assembly elections in three of six constituencies in the area of the historic county with a view to promoting a referendum on 'Letting Monmouthshire Decide' whether it wished to be part of Wales or England.

[26] The party received between 2.2% and 2.7% of the vote (a much lower total than Plaid Cymru) and failed to have any members elected.

[28] Berwick remained a county in its own right until 1885, when it was included in Northumberland for Parliamentary purposes.

The Interpretation Act 1978 provides that in legislation passed between 1967 and 1974, "a reference to England includes Berwick upon Tweed and Monmouthshire".

In 2008, SNP MSP Christine Grahame made calls in the Scottish Parliament for Berwick to become part of Scotland again, saying However, Alan Beith, the Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick, said the move would require a massive legal upheaval and is not realistic.

[30] However he is contradicted by another member of his party, the Liberal Democrat MSP Jeremy Purvis, who was born and brought up in Berwick.

Purvis has asked for the border to be moved twenty miles south (i.e., south of the Tweed) to include Berwick borough council rather than just the town, and has said: According to a poll conducted by a TV company, 60% of residents favoured Berwick rejoining Scotland.