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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Unionist
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Term first used in British politics in 1886, when the Liberal party split over *Home Rule. Those opposing it, and in favour therefore of maintaining the Act of *Union of 1800, formed a coalition with the Conservatives and later merged with them. The Conservatives today are still officially called the Conservative and Unionist party.
In Northern Ireland, where the issue remains topical, the Ulster Unionists are an independent political party founded in 1905 specifically to oppose Home Rule. On most other topics their stance is what elsewhere would be called Conservative, and in the House of Commons they usually vote with the Conservatives. Their leader since 1995 has been David Trimble. The Ulster Democratic Unionist party is a splinter group formed in 1971 by Ian Paisley and others to take an intransigent stance on Unionist principles and oppose any concessions to the Irish republican cause.
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