This witness seminar is a History & Policy partnership with the AHRC-funded research project on ‘Conservatism and Unionism in the UK, 1968-1997’, with Paul Corthorn (Queen’s University Belfast) as PI, Malcolm Petrie (University of St Andrews) as CI and Robbie Johnston (Queen’s University Belfast) as Research Fellow. The project aims to chart the historical evolution of the relationship between Conservatism and Unionism across the UK in the last three decades of the twentieth century. This was a critical juncture when a previously close relationship, forged amid the politics of the Irish Question in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, unravelled – with far-reaching implications for the survival of the Union today, which are the subject of political science and wider public debate.
From our present-day vantage point, the witness seminar will focus on how Unionism (and its underlying ideas) has evolved since the 1990s and consider its changing relationship with Conservatism. With the discussion set fully in the context of party politics, and against the backdrop of changing national governments, we will ask: how has the case for the Union changed since the 1990s? Or has it? How has this differed in different parts of the UK? How did (and does) Unionism relate to Conservatism? How has the relationship between Conservatism and Unionism been shaped by debates over the economy and by the rise of nationalism (including English nationalism)? How has the relationship been affected by specific developments such as the arrival of devolution and the impact of Brexit?
Panel members will include:
- Arlene Foster (Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee)
- Sir Malcolm Rifkind
- Prof Arthur Aughey
- David Melding CBE
It will be chaired by Philip Murphy (Director of History & Policy, IHR)
Image: © House of Lords 2024 / photography by Annabel Moeller
All welcome
This event is free to attend, but booking is required.
