England and Britain in Historical Perspective

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Arthur Aughey

Published:

2018

Publisher:

British Academy

In 1973, the Royal Commission on the Constitution understood membership of the United Kingdom to mean representation in the Parliament at Westminster. That approach emphasised political allegiance and institutional legitimacy rather than trying to define national identity. Forty years later the historian Robert Colls proposed that if you want to understand national identity, a good place to start would be the constitution, a living tradition based on historical relationships. Accordingly, this chapter examines the link between institutions and identity from two historical perspectives. The first recognises few institutions to be English as opposed to British. The second views these institutions as English onto which have been grafted British purposes. Historically, the Union has depended on these two views of identity co-existing as a political ‘double vision’. The chapter reconsiders that historical co-existence, identifying those perspectives which also threaten that double vision.

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