A Federal Britain?
Reaction against the UVF
The public split between the Orange Order and the Independent Order also had an effect across the Irish Sea in Liverpool and more generally across the mainland. The 1911 Liverpool Transport Strike had, like the Belfast Strike of 1907, brought workers together across the normal sectarian divide. Now working class support for Orange Lodges began tto fall away in favour of Trades Union membership. A similar picture was emerging in all the areas where the Orange Order had a foothold. More broadly, this was generally reflected in a more sympathetic view of Home Rule, not just for Ireland, but also for Wales and Scotland and in some respect even in England. In the North especially, criticisms began to emerge not just of policy but of excessive centralisation of government in the development of those policies. Worryingly for Asquith, this was coming not just from the margins, but across the board from the middle classes, from leading industrialists and from trades unionists.
Small steps to Federalism
Perhaps the most surprising intervention though, came from Churchill, in a speech in his constituency.
From the Times January 24th 1913
Mr Churchill said he wished to discuss the bearing of the Irish Bill upon the general question of a federal system for the United Kingdom. The Government advocated Home Rule as a means to end a long and miserable quarrel which had for generations distracted the relations between the two islands. They advocated it also because they believed and intended it to be a forerunner and a preliminary to a genuine system of self government in all the countries, which are, and must always remain, united under the Crown and the Imperial Parliament. Scotland, and Wales, would gain immensely from being able to manage their own national affairs and there should be no difficulty in extending to them, in the form which was most appropriate to their particular needs and desires, a Parliament or a National Council.
There would be no difficulty in applying the federal system to Scotland or Wales as well as to Ireland, but when they came to England a very real difficulty arose. England was so great and populous that an English Parliament, whatever its functions or limitations might be, could not fail, in the nature of things to be almost as powerful as the Imperial Parliament, side by side with which it would have to live, and if there were, as there very easily might be, a divergence of feeling and policy between the English Parliament and the Imperial Parliament the quarrel between these two tremendously powerful bodies might tear the State in half and bring great evil upon all.
It is was desired to set up a workable federal system in these Islands, they would have to face the task of dividing England into several great self governing areas. Some of theses, such as Lancashire could readily be discerned, but there were other parts of England which it was not nearly so easy to deal with. The questions which were raised by the adoption of a federal system in England were very difficult, but they were not insoluble. They required for their solution only one thing, which was that the public men of this country should the best of their minds to solving the problem.
Lord Curzon has spoken rather superciliously of such a project and had said “Fancy all these Parliaments for these poor little isles.” Well, the prospect I am bound to say does not seem extravagant to me. We may be very little islands, but we have a very large population and the affairs of 45 millions of persons demand a far closer attention and a more intimate knowledge than they can possibly receive from one Imperial Parliament.
But – the extraction of the Irish quarrel from our political affairs and its settlement will be found to be a vital and indispensable preliminary to any larger reconstruction. Until that is achieved you will have wrangling bitterness and faction rife and rampant in your Legislature. Irish interests will be trampled under foot in the storm and strife of British politics and Irish men will in their turn strike roughly into our affairs and sway their development. So I would urge upon all those who are attracted by the idea of a federal system and also by the idea of a Scottish Parliament for the settlement of purely Scottish affairs to concentrate on what is essentially a preliminary stage, the reconciliation of the British and Irish democracy by the restoration to Ireland of a Parliament for purely Irish affairs.
Others were quick to seize on Churchill's speech. The industrialist and philanthropist, Joseph Rowntree for example, wrote to the Manchester Guardian on 4th February 1913:
As a boy I saw in Ireland the dire effects of the Potato Famine. It is my firm belief that the failure of the government of the day to address those problems was at least in part due to their detachment from the events unfolding in that poor country. Mr Churchill seems to accept that same principle.
I am not going to pronounce upon the complexities of the Home Rule question in so far as it affects Ireland. That is a matter for Irishmen. It seems to me however, that the matter has been discussed by the Ministry, and the decision arrived at is that Home Rule is to be given to Ireland, but is to be denied to Scotland and to Wales. That is of itself a nonsensical position. Further, by treating Scotland and Wales as a part of England, it demeans not just those two nations, but England also. Englishmen surely havethe same right to control their destiny as any Irishman, Welshman or Scotsman.
But even that is not the end of it. The Ulsterman sees himself as different to the man of Kerry or of Cork. So I ask, what does a Yorkshireman have in common with the Cornishman? If Ireland can see itself taking two different directions, then so can England. We see this already working in Canada, in Australia and in South Africa. If a Federation is good enough for our cousins in Canada and Australia, if it works to heal the divisions between our cousins in South Africa, then surely it can do so in the home of democracy. Mr Churchill's proposals should be given the support of all men who hold the best interests of this country at their heart.
Of course, not all were sympathetic to these ideas. A Times editorial on the disestablishment of the Welsh Church made disparaging comments about “this so-called nation.” Bonar Law somehow managed to square the circle of support for an Ulster government while denouncing the idea of federalism as a step towards the break down of the Empire. Mrs Pankhurst dismissed the debate as “men's games.” Even so, the idea of political power being devolved to as local a level as possible was beginning to seem less utopian and perhaps as offering a practical way of constraining the messiness of Ireland or the growing unrest in the North of England.