Britain: An official handbook > 1959

II. GOVERNMENT AND
ADMINISTRATION
GENERAL SURVEY
The United Kingdom is a monarchical state, whose origins go back to the ninth
century when all England was unified under a Saxon king. Wales and Ireland
became part of the kingdom before the end of the thirteenth century, and the
English and Scottish thrones were dynastically united in the person of James l and
VI in 1603. In 1707, the Treaty for the Union of England and Scotland provided
that the two countries ‘should be forever united into one kingdom’, and one Parlia¬
ment (the Parliament of Great Britain) became the supreme authority in both
countries. In 1801, the authority of this Parliament was extended to the whole of
the United Kingdom by a provision of the Act for the Union of Great Britain and
Ireland, 1800, which joined the Irish Parliament to the Parliament of Great Britain.
In 1922, the United Kingdom was diminished by the separation of the 26 counties
of Southern Ireland (now the Republic of Ireland). Meantime, the Government o
Ireland Act, 1920, had enacted a constitution for Northern Ireland which per¬
petuated Northern Ireland representation in the United Kingdom Parliament as
the supreme authority and, at the same time, provided that country with its own
legislature and executive, to deal with domestic affairs. _
Fundamental policies on major issues are adopted for the whole of the United
Kingdom; methods of government, however, are flexible and adapted to inaiviaual
needs. Thus, there is a considerable devolution in the administration of Welsh
affairs under a Cabinet Minister (who is Minister for Welsh Affairs) assisted by a
Minister of State, who spends most of his time in Wales. Scotland has its own
system of law, its own courts, its own established church, its own educational
system and its own Government Departments which are under the direction of tne
Secretary of State for Scotland, who is a leading member of the United Kingdom
Government. The Northern Ireland Government Departments are responsible to
the Northern Ireland Parliament. The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man
(which are Crown dependencies, not part of the United Kingdom) have their own
legislative assemblies and systems of local administration and of law, and their
own courts. At the same time, they have a special relationship with the United
Kingdom because of their proximity to the mainland and the antiquity of their
connection with the Crown. They are treated as part of the mainland for purposes
of trade and postal communication and are ‘territories for whose international
relations Her Majesty’s Government is responsible’. They are also formally subject
to the United Kingdom Parliament.
The United Kingdom is thus a multi-national nation; it is also one of the member
nations of the Commonwealth, all of which (except the republics of India and
Pakistan and the Federation of Malaya) owe allegiance to the Crown. India, Pakistan
and Malaya accept the Queen as the symbol of the free association of the member
nations and, as such, as the head of the Commonwealth.
Each member nation of the Commonwealth has its own separate constitution,
governed by different laws and customs, and subject to different powers of change.
The United Kingdom constitution is formed partly by statute, partly by common
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