Rhetoric and Devolution — Time and Space in Welsh Labour Rhetoric

Abstract

Studying ‘British Politics’ is rhetorically complex. Is it the study of the politics of Britain (or Great Britain), a polity encompassing three nations, England, Wales and Scotland? Or the politics of the United Kingdom, uniting Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the latter often being treated as a ‘place apart’)? Studying ‘British Politics’ has in fact often meant studying English politics; analyses focusing upon the most populous element of the collective Union, where formal political power ultimately resides in the central, Westminster Parliament. For Britain, then, read England (or even just London). Foundationally, the governance of Britain and its study is thus a rhetorical issue. The 1997 Labour government’s devolution of powers away from Westminster to assemblies in Wales, Northern Ireland and London, and a parliament in Scotland pushed this into the spotlight.