Will devolution lead to the break up of the UK?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Will devolution lead to the break-up of the UK?

Within the UK, devolution has really only been a relevant issue since the 1997 general election where it was one of the major manifesto promises of Tony Blair's "new labour" to bring around constitutional change in the format of devolved government. "Devolution means the delegation of some legislative and/or executive functions of central powers to local bodies, while the national powers remains responsible for major national issues such as defense, foreign affairs and macro-economics."1. Since the 90's we have seen devolution in the UK in the form of the Welsh Assembly and Northern Irish Assembly's and the Scottish Parliament with varying degrees of success but while devolution has helped to slow down the growing elements of nationalism and desire for independence in the devolved states it has not solved the problem altogether. In my opinion devolution offers itself as an alternative and a compromise to the break-up of the UK, not a stepping-stone towards that complete independence of all involved states. Devolution offers a way to for states to hold on to individual cultures and nationalist traits while still leaving major issues such as security and foreign policy with