Wales remained a separate entity from England until the 16th century. Wales is composed of a number of principalities (principautés) with distinct characteristics. Those differences resulted in various conflicts until the middle Ages. Fortunately, in 1536, the Act of Union integrated together England and Wales administratively but also legally. From that time on, Wales became administered by the English Parliament and English Law started to apply on their territory. When ones refer to England, it actually means England and Wales.
Scotland remained separate longer than Wales. There were numerous wars until 1603 but things started to change after the death of Queen Elisabeth who had no successor and therefore led to a King who was Scottish: James the 6th. He became the king of England under the name of James the 1st of England. During one century, England and Scotland shared the same king but with different Parliaments. In 1707, the Act of Union definitively united England and Scotland: Great Britain came into existence. GB is composed of England, Wales and Scotland. It is important to note that Scotland's integration was however less complete tan that of Wales: Scotland continued to keep its own educational system, legal system and courts as well as it brand of Protestantism. (...)
[...] Ministers, even though they are paid officers of the Crown, are not disqualified. The rule that precludes certain Crown officers from serving in the House of Commons is used to circumvent a resolution adopted by the House of Commons in 1623, under which Members are not permitted to resign their seats (in theory). In practice, however, they always can. Should a Member wish to resign from the House of Commons, he may request appointment to one of two ceremonial Crown offices: that of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, or that of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. [...]
[...] FPTP gave a clear advantage to the first party Labour and the PR rectified a bit for the other parties particularly Plaid Cymru. No party has an absolute majority and Labour can not therefore decide the legislation alone. This is a new unheard of situation in the UK. The powers of the Welsh are quite restricted (compared to Scotland): no tax raising power, no competence to pass primary legislation (only secondary legislation to implement legislation voted in Westminster) and there responsibilities are limited (fairly restricted competence) over Welsh Home Affairs: economic development, planning, transport, health and education fields. [...]
[...] So Tony Blair called genera election in 2001 and then in 2005. The next election can happen whenever he wants as long as before 2010. An example of two elections held the same year: In general elections were called (Feb and Oct). The reason for Harold Wilson to do that? He needed to increase the number of seats to have the majority at the commons cause after February, he had the greatest number of seats but not enough to have the absolute majority and Wilson had to negotiate alliances. [...]
[...] The National Flag of the UK reflects this history quite well. It is called the “Union Jack” and is dated 1801, date of formation of the UK. The flag is composed of: - a red perpendicular cross on a white background (St George's cross), standing for England - a white diagonal cross on a blue background (St Andrew's cross), standing for Scotland - a red diagonal cross on a white background (St Patrick's cross), standing for Ireland It is interested to notice that Wales was not represented separately, which shows how perfectly it was integrated to England. [...]
[...] Northern Ireland fist all inclusive government was formed on the first of December 1999. David Trimble became Northern Ireland's first Prime Minister at the head of a group of ministers composed of ministers from both Unionists and Nationalist parties including Sinn Fein. Yet, in the year 2000, the executive came to a deadlock as a result of the IRA too slow decommissioning process. Decommissioning which implies for the IRA and the loyalist paramilitary groups the giving up of all their military weapons and the release of paramilitary prisoners were the two controversial issues that were not settled by the Good Friday Agreement. [...]
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