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This article argues that shifts in the UK's territorial management practice in the late 2010s and early 2020s, described by various terms, including 'muscular unionism', may be more rhetorical and ideational than substantive. The practices associated with these terms are recognisably part of the 'British political tradition', and the changes of the early 2020s can be viewed as reasserting traditional governance practices rather than introducing new ones. The article examines the various phenomena described as 'muscular unionism' and suggests that many are relatively ad hoc, low-level initiatives, often rhetorical. There is also much evidence that the UK governments of the 2020s see the 'Millennium Settlement', introduced in 1999, as continuing to be a core part of UK territorial management. The clearest break from historical practice comes in the overt, explicit quality of 'muscular unionist' rhetoric. The article then suggests that, contrary to some scholarly expectations, this muscular unionist turn may come to be an effective territorial management strategy for the UK government, as it aligns with an Anglo-British imaginary within England that continues to conflate England, Britain and the UK in terms of governance and national identity.

The Local Government Act 2000 established the system of 'overview and scrutiny' in a majority of English local authorities. Ostensibly an attempt to transfer some of the features of the parliamentary/government decisionmaking process, the new system has not been able entirely to replace its predecessor. An analysis of three case-study county councils shows that they have adapted the overview and scrutiny system to existing political preferences, which owe much both to existing local government practice and to the prevailing cultures within the councils. Culture has influenced the structure of committees, their relationship to the executive, officer relationships, questioning, and use of the call-in function.