English national parties in post-devolution UK

Abstract

The introduction of devolved political institutions to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales created a two-fold asymmetrical constitutional system across the United Kingdom, a system from which England was excluded. But, has this exclusion, along with the SNP victory in the 2007 Scottish parliament elections, the Brown premiership and the reluctance among the main UK-wide parties to be seen to promote Englishness and England, or to support the creation of an English Parliament, provided fertile ground for the growth of English national party politics? Given these conditions, an examination of the current state of English national parties and whether a single party has been able to rise to prominence, in a fairly crowded field, tells much about the nature of smaller party politics in the United Kingdom. This article reports the results of recent research exploring the politics, policies and organisation of English nationalist parties, and examines the nature of their nationalism to assess the contribution made to party politics in England. The research from which this article is drawn is funded by the Leverhulme Trust under grant numberF/094/AP.