The journalist and broadcaster, Andrew Marr, writing in The Spectator, suggested that devolved parliaments would have been established over a century ago if the First World War had not broken out. In a letter published in the magazine on 2 July, Alistair Lexden showed that there was no truth in Marr’s claim.
Sir: A comprehensive devolution scheme—home rule all round—was not lost when war broke out in 1914, as Andrew Marr suggests (Diary, 18 June). Having floated the idea, Asquith got Winston Churchill, then Liberal Home Secretary, to examine the practicalities. He told the cabinet that a single English parliament was ‘absolutely impossible’ and proposed seven regional legislatures for the UK’s largest country. No further work was done and the Liberals’ third Home Rule, like its predecessors, was confined to Ireland. Those who hoped for more had to be content with Asquith’s vague and insincere reference in debate to the possibility of a ‘larger and more comprehensive policy’ in due course. There was no first step towards a set of looser ties which would have made it easier for the UK’s component parts to make separate arrangements after Brexit.
Alistair Lexden
House of Lords