Speaking for ‘our precious Union’: unionist claims in the time of Brexit, 2016–20

Abstract

Brexit and its implications pose the latest challenge to the Union as a political project and to unionism as the doctrine of state legitimacy. How did key unionist actors articulate the legitimizing foundations of the Union in the critical period 2016-20? And to what extent did they set out a renewed case for its continuation? Drawing on an extensive database including parliamentary debates, party documents and conference notes, we find that, despite the profound nature of the challenges posed by Brexit, dominant legitimizing claims continued to be instrumentalist defences of the Union rooted in economics and welfare. These were underpinned by ideas of social union around shared solidarity and belonging and supplemented by an invocation of common British values. Overall, while we identify a plurality of competing and often conflicting unionist themes, we conclude that key unionist actors struggled to adapt the legitimizing foundations of their political project to the realities of a post-Brexit UK.

Representing Scotland: Conservative narratives of nation, union, and Scottish independence

“…In line with other empirical research (see, Cetrà and Brown Swan, 2022;Anderson et al, 2023), our analysis highlights the centrality of the economy in Conservative narratives regarding Scotland and its constitutional future. We discern two distinct approaches that appear aimed at different audiences.…”

“…In the aftermath of the SNP's formation of a majority government in 2011 and the campaign for independence leading up to the 2014 referendum, unionists have been in a near permanent state of campaign for the Union. As noted earlier, unionism is no longer a banal state nationalism, but is instead a more active and vigorous defence of the Union, largely evidenced in 'instrumentalist defences of union rooted in economics and welfare' (Cetrà and Brown Swan, 2022). In this section, we focus on the representations of unionism and nationalism by Conservative parliamentarians and commentators and highlight the contrast drawn between the two -that of an inclusive unionism versus narrow nationalism.…”

“…Throughout the period under study, the union dividend is largely framed in positive terms by Conservative parliamentarians, particularly in the context of discussion on Scotland's membership of the UK and independence. Described by Gove (2022) as a sum that 'the Treasury pays to the people of Scotland' , the dividend illustrates the economic instrumentalisation that has come to dominate the case for the Union made by Conservatives (Cetrà and Brown Swan, 2022). Parliamentarians repeatedly referred to the dividend as amounting to around £2000 per person in Scotland and a clear benefit of the Union for Scots (Lamont, 2022a;Mordaunt, 2023d).…”

“…Specific to the UK case, we examine how state nationalist political elites conceive of Scotland as a political entity within the Union, vis-à-vis England as the majority nation. Second, we expand on our previous empirical research (Brown Swan and Cetrà, 2020;Cetrà and Brown Swan, 2022;Anderson et al, 2023) on state nationalism by focusing on the rhetorical narratives used by Conservatives in the UK to make the case for the Union and against independence. As other scholars have highlighted, research on majority/state nationalism is crucial 'to provide much-anticipated clarification on the relationship between majority and minority nations by fundamentally exploring the means by which the core nation operates' (Lecours and Nootens, 2011: 15).…”

‘Muscular Unionism’: The British Political Tradition Strikes Back?

“…Second, tacitly acknowledging ‘the English core of the British state’ (Bryant, 2003: 397). This aims to assuage fears of English dominance by cultivating a belief that British political stability rests on English restraint (Bryant, 2003; Cetra and Brown Swan, 2022; Keating, 2021; Kenny, 2021; Martin, 2021). Implicitly, the price – the existence of few distinctly English political or public institutions and the fusing of English and British administration (Diamond and Laffin, 2022; Gallagher, 2018) – is regarded as worth paying and of minimal salience to the majority of English voters (Aughey, 2016).…”