The Absorption of Scotland into a Greater England

Virtually every article you read on The Acts (and subsequent Treaty) of Union will talk of the fact that both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England were dissolved and replaced with a new Parliament of Great Britain. In reality, however, England never actually abolished its parliament, it just absorbed Scotland’s. The “New” Parliament just happened to based at Westminster, somewhat conveniently the “former” home of the English Parliament.

The fact is that the Westminster you see today is the same parliament that started life in 1097, over 600 years before the Acts of Union. Furthermore, its traditions and procedures stem from before the Acts of Union. For example, the tradition that each sitting of the house begins with prayers can be traced back as long ago as 1558. The position of “Black Rod”, the usher who summons the House of Commons to the State opening of Parliament, stems from as far back as 1522, although the office itself dates back even further to 1350.

Indeed, if one thing truly highlights the case that this was, and remains, an English Parliament, it is that when the “new” parliament came into being in May 1707, with the addition of Scottish MPs, it was not even considered necessary to hold a new general election. It simply continued on as if nothing had changed.

Former Foreign Secretary, the late Robin Cook (a Scot, apparently) in a key speech to the Social Market Foundation in London in April 2001, talked of Britain having a thousand years of history. Other politicians, political parties and historians, including the UK Independence Party and highly respected and prominent historian Simon Sharma, have also talked of Britain having “a thousand years of history”. Yet Britain has only 300 years of history (or, at the very most, 404 years, if you consider the Union of Crowns in 1603 to be a more pivotal point).

It is not hard to understand the confusion, when you realise that the Union was only ever seen as a Greater England. The United Kingdom’s central bank is still called The Bank of England and treaties with other states are prefixed “Anglo” (Anglo-Irish, Anglo-French etc) even though this clearly means “English”. Either way, as the English would say, it’s just not cricket.