The issue of devolution has often been one for polemic rather than reasoned analysis. This book places recent developments in the United Kingdom in their historical context, examining political and constitutional aspects of devolution in Britain from Gladstone's espousal of Home Rule in 1886 right up to the 1998 legislation governing the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, and the Mayoral Election of May 2000. Devolution will be required reading for anyone whowants to understand the significance of the most important constitutional development of our time.