30th April 2024 Hybrid event on Canadian federalism, jointly organised with Federal Union. The main speaker (via Zoom) was M. Jean Charest, former Premier of Quebec (2023-2012) and former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (1993), who spoke on "Federal Reality in Canada", followed by a Q&A session. While his principal [...]
Devolution at national level acknowledges that today’s UK is a construct of formerly discrete entities whose diverse histories and identities are enduringly recognised at an institutional level. Decentralisation within England, by contrast, involves the reorganisation of power within one territory of significant population size (c. 56 million) in order better [...]
In this Federal Trust video John Denham, Glyndwr Jones and Brendan Donnelly discuss the need for constitutional reform to preserve the UK. They conclude that reform is particularly needed in England, both to improve the governance of England itself and to distinguish between English and British political identities. Confusion between [...]
In this video, former member of the Welsh Senedd David Melding discusses with Brendan Donnelly the advantages of a federal structure for the United Kingdom. Devolution was an honourable attempt to reform the governance of the United Kingdom. It has not however led to greater constitutional stability. Federal structures for [...]
In this new essay for the Federal Trust, our Council member and former member of the Welsh Senedd David Melding argues that federal structures are the best way of preserving the constitutional and geographical integrity of the United Kingdom. In a federal UK, powers and responsibilities would be transparently and [...]
Joint Conference by The James Madison Charitable Trust and The Federal Trust for Education and Research 29th October 2022 The union holding together the nations of the United Kingdom has come under strain. Challenges include the announcement of a referendum on independence in Scotland, the constitutional review by the Commission [...]
This was the second event in our new series of webinars on "Federal Futures?", discussing how the UK’s various tiers of government coped, and co-ordinated, during the pandemic. SPEAKERS: Dr Janice Morphet Visiting Professor, The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL Author of "The Impact of COVID-19 on Devolution" (30% discount [...]
The Covid-19 crisis, the Government’s ‘levelling-up’ agenda and the SNPs desire for another Scottish independence referendum are together raising issues about the various tiers and responsibilities of UK governments. Professor Colin Talbot, Emeritus Professor of Government at the University of Manchester, will be organising a series of webinars for the Federal Trust on [...]
