A Short History of Scotland and England's Union

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2022

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Yesterday the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Scottish government is not allowed to hold a second independence referendum without Westminster's agreement. It means, for now, Scotland will stay in the United Kingdom, though for how long is unclear.

The union between the nations of Great Britain goes back to 1707. On each side of the border, statesmen started to realise that a closer relationship offered solutions to problems both countries were facing: Scotland needed economic security and England needed political safeguards against French attacks. In this episode, Scottish historian Professor Murray Pittock talks Dan through the benefits and cracks in this 300 year old union.

Produced by Hannah Ward and edited by Dougal Patmore

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is sponsored by Audible, where you can now stream the new series of that brilliant Stephen Fry's
0:06.7	Secrets of podcast. It peaks behind the curtain of the 1920s this time. The life and times of the flappers,
0:14.1	police women, radio, the movies, jazz, the British sense of humour,
0:20.3	censorship and the secrets and lies, the financial crash. This is another installment of Stephen Fry that listeners love.
0:27.7	There are some brilliant stories in here, all told in a very Stephen Fry type of way. You're going to love it.
0:32.7	Listen now, subscription required, see audible.co.uk for terms.
0:38.7	Everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History It. On the 1st of May 1707, the acts of union came into force. England and Scotland.
0:49.7	Two ancient kingdoms were fused together to become Great Britain, which is why folks, particularly in other countries,
0:56.7	there is no Queen of England. They're not the King of England.
1:01.7	They are the King or Queen of Great Britain and now of the UK. And weirdly, I'll tell you something interesting.
1:06.7	I don't think there's a single adjective to describe someone from the UK. They're UK-ish, because they're not British. They could be British or Northern Irish.
1:14.7	There's no word. We need to fix that. Anyway, a few years after the acts of union,
1:20.7	Stanup said, and he may have heard me talk about Stanup before. Remember, he was actually George I, the first Prime Minister before his Royal Opal.
1:27.7	Anyway, Stanup, senior politician, wrote,
1:29.7	never did a treaty produce more ultimate advantage to a nation. Never was any received with such general and thorough hatred. And I was like that quite rude for me.
1:51.7	But I think there was a difference between the two sides of the border here in Britain. England and Scotland, once the oldest of enemies,
2:00.7	ways fractured siblings then became the closest of allies. But now, that union is under pressure. There was a vote on independence in which the union supporters,
2:11.7	But following the decision to Brexit in 2016, a decision which the vast majority of Scottish
2:17.2	people did not support the case for independence was revitalised.
2:22.5	Very important week this week, as in the supreme court in London, it was decided that
2:28.0	Nicola Sturgeon and the Nationalists, the supporters of independence, are not allowed
2:33.0	to call a second referendum against the wishes of the UK government.
	...

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