I don't thnk that devolution has in any sense of the word reversed the union of the parliaments (may have diluted it a little though). Scots MPs still sit in Westminster and some policy is still decided at Westminster.
I agree that this is a little ambiguously worded, but I see what the author is trying to get at. It is a question of nuance: maybe something like 'a beginning of the disentanglement of the merged parliaments' would more accurately fit the bill.
sjc
I don't think there was anything 'so-called' about the Highland Clearances. There is a considerable amount of highly convincing primary evidence which indicates that a) they happened b) were extremely brutal and c) affected a considerable number of folk.
sjc
Let's see what the old Merriam Webster has to say:
so-called adj 1. Commonly named : popularly termed 2. falsely or improperly so named.
Given the remainder of the paragraph on the Clearances, I think it's clear which meaning of the term is being used. -- PaulDrye
Yes, there is an ambiguity here; certainly when someone says 'so-called' to me, though, I tend to think immediately in terms of definition 2, as I guess, would most people... sjc
- It's a Scottish article, and the Chambers dictionary defines: so-called adj styled or known as such (usually implying doubt or denial ... or a wish to disassociate oneself from the implications of the term). It would appear to me its use here is appropriate, no need to re-factor (pun intended!) -- Dweir, 17 Nov 2001
I think a little background would be nice:
see
[scottweb/clearances]
My apologies for cutting off the second half of the article - all I did was correct a link, but I got an error from the server after clicking save. Anyway, I take the blame.
What I was going to change was the date for the start of known habitation in Scotland... by 2000BC we were already into the Bronze Age. Mesolithic midden has been discovered on Lewis and near Inverness which dates to at least 5000BC... Dweir
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