Pre-Entry Devolution Handout
Neil McGarvey, Department of Government,
Table 1: Responsibilities of the Scottish Parliament Areas not reserved (responsibilities of Reserved Areas (Not Devolved) the Scottish parliament)
Common market for UK goods and services Constitution of the United Kingdom Defence & national security Employment legislation Fiscal, economic & monetary union Health (in some areas), Medicine Media and culture Professional Regulation (in certain cases) Protection of Borders Social Security Transport Safety & Regulation Agriculture, fisheries and forestry Economic Development Education Environment Health Housing Local Government Law and Home Affairs Social Work Training Transport
Source: Mitchell, J. (2000) ‘New Parliament, New Politics in Scotland’ Parliamentary Affairs 53(3) p.76
Table 2. Devolution Referendum Results a. Scotland
1979 Yes 51.6 No 48.4 Turnout 63.6% 32.8 30.8
1997 Should there be a Scottish parliament? % Agree 74.3% Disagree 25.7% Turnout 60.4% b. Wales 50.3% Yes No. 49.7% Turnout 50%
Should it have tax varying powers? % Agree 63.5% Disagree 36.5% d. London Yes 72% No 28% Turnout 33%
c. Northern Ireland Yes 71.1% No 28.9% Turnout 81%
Table 3: Expectations of the Scottish Parliament (Pre-Devolution) A Little (%) Total (%) The Scottish Parliament would A Lot (%)
Increase unemployment Increase taxes Improve the economy Improve the standard of the NHS Improve the quality of education Improve the standard of social welfare 2 2 26 36 39 19 9 68 60 46 50 53 11 70 86 82 89 71
Source: Denver, D. J.Mitchell, C.Pattie & H.Bochel (2000) Scotland Decides: The Devolution Issue and the Scottish Referendum (London; Frank Cass) p.200
Table 3: General Election results: number of seats (%votes) won in Scotland 1945 – 2005
Elections 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 Labour Seats % 37 47.6 37 46.2 35 47.9 34 46.7 38 46.7 43 48.7 46 49.9 44 44.5 41 36.6 41 36.3 44 41.5 41 35.1 50 42.4 49 39.0 56 45.6 55 43.2 41 39.5 Cons Seats 27 32 35 36 31 24 20 23 21 16 22 21 10 11 0 1 1 % 41.1 44.8 48.6 50.1 47.2 40.6 37.7 38.0 32.9 24.7 31.4 28.4 24.0 25.6 17.5 15.6 15.8 Liberal Dems Seats % 0 5.0 2 6.6 1 2.7 1 1.9 1 4.1 4 7.6 5 6.8 3 5.5 3 7.9 3 8.3 3 9.0 8 24.5 9 19.4 9 13.1 10 13.0 10 16.4 11 22.6 SNP Seats 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 11 2 2 3 3 6 5 6 % 1.2 0.4 0.3 0.5 0.8 2.4 5.0 11.4 21.9 30.4 17.3 11.8 11.0 21.5 22.1 20.1 17.7 Others Seats % 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Table 4: Scottish Election results: number of seats and % vote. Ist Vote % Seats 28.7 7 23.8 9 32.9 21 38.8 53 34.6 46 32.2 37 15.6 0 16.6 3 16.6 4 14.2 12 15.4 13 16.2 11 0 0 0 0 0.2 0 1.0 0 6.2 0 0.0 0 1.7 1 3.4 2 2nd Vote % Seats 27.3 28 21.6 18 31.0 26 33.6 3 29.6 4 29.2 9 15.4 18 15.5 15 13.9 13 12.4 5 11.6 4 13.9 5 3.6 1 6.5 7 4.0 2 2.0 1 6.5 6 0.6 0 5.7 0 8.7 2 Total 35 27 47 56 50 4 18 18 17 17 17 16 1 7 2 1 6 0 1 4
SNP Lab Cons Lib D Green SSP Other
1999 2003 2007 1999 2003 2007 1999 2003 2007 1999 2003 2007 1999 2003 2007 1999 2003 2007 1999 2003
2007
3.1
0
7.4
1
1
Table 5: Best choice for national identity 1974-2005* 1974 1979 1992 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 Scottish 65 56 72 72 77 77 73 79 British 31 38 25 20 17 16 20 14 * other, ‘don’t know’ and ‘not answered’ have been omitted Data complied from Scottish Election Studies 1974-1997 and Scottish Social Attitudes Surveys 1999 – 2006.
Table 6: Recent Trends in Scottish Constitutional Preferences May 1997 % Scotland should Be independent, separate From UK and EU or sep From UK but part of EU Remain part of UK with Its own elected Parliament Remain part of the UK Without an elected Parliament Sources: Scottish Election Study 1997, Scottish Referendum Study 1997, Scottish Social attitudes Survey various years 18 17 10 9 13 14 54 41 58 60 55 44 28 37 28 27 26 35 Sept 1997 % 1999 % 2001 % 2003 % 2005 %
Box 1: Bias at the 2007 Scottish Election The Sun May 3rd 2007 Front page Headline ‘VOTE SNP TODAY AND YOU PUT SCOTLAND’S HEAD IN THE NOOSE’ Sub-Headings: HIGHER TAXES, JOBS ON THE LINE, DEATH OF THE UNION, DEFENCE IN CHAOS Page 4 & 5 had ‘10 Reasons to be Fearful’ with the editorial on page 6 declaring ‘Only Labour can save us from a living nightmare!’ Daily Record May 3rd 2007 Front Page Headline: Today’s election is not about war in Iraq. It is not about Tony Blair. It is about who will run Scotland. It is about schools, hospitals and law and order. Do not sleepwalk into independence. Do not let a protest vote break up Britain. THINK ABOUT IT. Pages 6, 7, 8, 9 referred to ‘COCKY Alex Salmond’, had a map of ‘ESTIMATED JOBS LOST/AT RISK (OVER 200,000!), an editorial urging readers ‘Do note vote for Alex Salmond today’ and a page urging readers to vote tactically in 10 seats (including a recommendation to Vote Tory in two of them). The unionist tabloid media bias was not so apparent in 1992 when the Scottish Sun re-launched itself under the banner headline (with a Scottish Saltire in the background) RISE AND BE A NATION AGAIN – the paper announcing its (short-lived) conversion to the cause of Scottish independence. Both the Daily Record and the Scottish Sun have regularly sought to proclaim their Scottishness with advertising slogans such as ‘Real Scots Read The Record’ and ‘Standing Up for Scotland’. The Scottish Sun had a thistle on its mast-head for a number of years. Box 2: The SNP’s ‘National Conversation’ After its election in 2007 the SNP sought to ignite a public debate on Scotland’s constitutional future. The new Government outlined three options (although the SNP is clear on which it prefers): Retention of the devolution scheme as set out in the Scotland Act 1998. Redesigning devolution by redrawing the boundaries of devolved and reserved powers. Independence.
However, the fate of this debate depends to a large extent on two factors. The first is the new pragmatic attitude of the SNP Government, keen to reinforce its image of governing competence by engaging with its new powers and working within both the constraints of a devolution settlement and the need to work with other parties in Parliament. This is reflected in its first legislative programme and its ‘first 100 days’ commitments which were revised to reflect its minority government status (see Cairney, 2007c for a full review). The second factor is the stance of the other political parties towards an independence agenda, which has shifted since the 2007 election campaign.