Central to the concept of authentic pro-UK principle is the idea that the UK is a unitary, or single, country, one nation. What does this mean?

Currently, anti-UK separatists (the SNP in Scotland, IRA/Sinn Fein in Ulster and Plaid Cymru in Wales) and even some who want to maintain the Union think that the UK is just England, Scotland, Ulster and Wales held together in a loose association, or a type of confederation, of sovereign nations. This is not the case, historically or according to UK Constitutional Law.

After the Acts of Union, both Scotland and England stopped being independent sovereign nations and formed a composite country, Great Britain, that pooled both their resources and national legislative sovereignty for the common good of all.

After the Act of Union with Ireland in 1801, Great Britain became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; ‘Northern Ireland’ (Ulster) after partition in 1921.

Whilst supreme political sovereignty resides with the electorate across the entire UK (the people decide who forms the UK Government and authorises them to pass bills to enact a programme of policies they agree with contained in their manifesto), ultimate national legislative sovereignty resided exclusively with Westminster from this time on (and this is still the case.)

Anti-UK separatists deliberately misrepresent UK history and Constitutional Law to suit their anti-UK agenda. They assert that the Acts of Union state Scotland is still a sovereign nation and not part of a single composite nation. A look at the facts of constitutional law clearly shows that this just isn’t the case, as was also shown by the facts of history laid out above.

It is a fact of constitutional law that the UK is a unitary (single) nation and that the Houses of Commons and Lords (Westminster) are the supreme national legislatively sovereign authority in and for the entire UK. Both the websites of the UK Government and even the devolved Scottish legislature (Holyrood ) categorically state this:

‘Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution. It makes Parliament the supreme legal authority in the UK, which can create or end any law. Generally, the courts cannot overrule its legislation and no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change. Parliamentary sovereignty is the most important part of the UK constitution.’ (From the UK Government website at https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/role/sovereignty/)

‘Under this system of devolution, Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom and the UK Parliament in Westminster is sovereign (has ultimate power).’ (From the Holyrood devolved legislature website at https://archive2021.parliament.scot/visitandlearn/Education/18642.aspx)

NOTE: The above attachment from the Holyrood website is an archived version of what previously appeared on the main website, but the principles it states still apply and are still completely valid and relevant now.

A unitary state, such as the UK is a state governed as a single political entity in which the national government at Westminster is ultimately legislatively supreme.

In unitary states, the national, or central, government (Westminster in the UK’s case) may create (or abolish) administrative divisions (subnational units, i.e. assemblies and parliaments, that is, subnational devolved legislatures.)

Such units exercise only the powers that the national (UK) government chooses to delegate to them.

Although political power may be delegated through devolution to regional or local administrations by statute, the national government may abrogate the acts of devolved administrations or curtail (or expand) their powers at their discretion at any time by repealing the acts of Parliament that set them up originally, after seeking and obtaining a cast-iron democratic mandate to do so by either winning a UK General Election on a manifesto commitment to do so or winning a majority in a referendum on the question.

The national UK Government can also legislate on any devolved matter at any time if it chooses, although in the UK the Sewel Convention means that Westminster avoids doing this if at all possible.

It should be noted that, under UK Constitutional Law, the national authority (Westminster) retains ultimate legislative sovereignty at all times.

This separatist misrepresentation that the United Kingdom is nothing but a loose confederation of individual sovereign nations is based on a deliberate misrepresentation of both the historical and constitutional facts.

Anti-UK separatists (such as the SNP in Scotland and IRA/Sinn Fein in Ulster especially) intend to emphasise and magnify the idea in the public’s mind that the constituent parts of the UK are already sovereign semi-autonomous nations. They do this to further facilitate the loosening of the mutually beneficial bonds that unify the UK and so advance their separatist agenda.

This is why it must be exposed by all authentic pro-UK citizens for the ill-informed fallacy and deception that the facts show it is.

We all live in a single country called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and ‘Northern Ireland’.

(Does not represent the view of Scotland Matters)