The Wilson Government, the rise of nationalism and the road to the Royal Commission on the Constitution, 1966-1968

Evans, Adam ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4150-1517 2024. The Wilson Government, the rise of nationalism and the road to the Royal Commission on the Constitution, 1966-1968. Contemporary British History 10.1080/13619462.2024.2382116 Item availability restricted.

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 22 January 2026 due to copyright restrictions. Download (424kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

The Royal Commission on the Constitution was a rare moment when the UK’s territorial governance was considered as a whole. Established as a response to the rise in electoral support for the SNP and Plaid Cymru in the mid to late 1960s, the Commission was seen by some at the time and others since of being a classic example of Harold Wilson’s claim that Commissions ‘take minutes and last years’ and a cynical attempt to kick the constitutional ‘can down the road’. This article is not an analysis of the Royal Commission’s findings, rather it offers an examination of why it came to be established. Drawing on an extensive range of primary and secondary source materials, including Cabinet papers and ministerial correspondence, this paper provides a detailed assessment of the months of debates and deliberations, including a Ministerial Committee on Devolution, which preceded the decision to establish a Royal Commission on the Constitution. The by-election successes and unnerving near-misses for Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties at by elections between 1966 and 1968 created a sense within the Cabinet that the Government needed to have a clear response to the electorate. That this response was a Commission only followed a intense process of debate and deliberation within Government that failed, despite the efforts of a number of Wilson’s Ministers, to produce a broadly acceptable and supported alternative.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Cardiff Law & Politics Wales Governance Centre (WGCES)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
ISSN:	1361-9462
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	17 July 2024
Date of Acceptance:	17 July 2024
Last Modified:	09 Nov 2024 04:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/170646

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item