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2 The Scottish Parliament 3 Scotland at Westminster 4 Local Government 5 Political Parties 6 Further Referance |
Scotland is a part of the state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The UK has no single written constitution document. Until the 1707 Acts of Union Scotland was an independent nation state. However, upon these acts coming into effect both Scotland and England's parliaments were dissolved and reconstituted as a parliament for all of Great Britain using the former English parliament's buildings and executive institutions. The Scottish and English crowns were unified in 1603 when James VI of Scotland became James I of England. In 1801 the Kingdom of Great Britain was unified with Ireland.
Until 1999 Scotland had no Scottish specific legislature, although various attempts were made to secure some form of Home Rule over the years.
The election of the Labour government in 1997 ensured that there would be a referendum on establishing a devolved Scottish Parliament. This was held in September, 1997 and the Scottish people voted 75% in favour of its establishment.
The Parliament was then created by the Scotland Act 1998 of the Westminster Parliament. This act sets out the powers devolved to Scotland, including health, education, local government, Scots Law amongst others. Powers still held at Westminster (referred to as "reserved" powers) include Defence, International Relations, Fiscal and Economic Policy, Drugs Law and Broadcasting, to name but a few.
The Parliament is elected with a Proportional Representation electoral system, namely, the Additional Members System. This is unlike Westminster which is still elected by the First Past the Post method. It is elected every four years and contains 129 members (referred to as MSPs).
This has resulted in the election of a number of canididates from parties that could not have reasonably expected to get any representation otherwise.
The Parliament elects a Presiding Officer to chair its meetings, similar to the way that Westminster elects a Speaker of the House of Commons. The current Presiding Officer is George Reid.
The Parliament also elects a First Minister, who heads the Scottish Executive. In theory the Parliament also elects the members of the Executive, but in practice it is the First Minister who chooses them. The current First Minister is Jack McConnell.
Current representation in the Scottish Parliament is:
The House of Commons
Scotland currently elects 72 MPs from 72 single-member constituencies to serve in the House of Commons. This is an over-representation and it is expected that the number will be reduced in time for the next General Election. Indeed, the boundary commission for Scotland has recommended a reduction to 59 MPs. This over-representation was widely accepted before to allow for a greater Scottish voice in the Commons, but since the establishment of a Scottish Parliament it has been felt that this is less necessary.
Scottish MPs are elected at the same time as the rest of the UK's MPs are.
Scotland was historically represented in the UK government by the Secretary of State for Scotland. This post was established in the 1880s but recently it has been the topic of much speculation. Many believe that since devolution there is no need for such a role to exist. The current Secretary of State is Alastair Darling.
Current Scottish Representation in the Commons is:
At one stage every Scottish lord was able to sit in the House of Lords. However, since the current Labour government's reforms of that house this is no longer the case and hereditary Scottish peers have to stand for election from amongst all eligible peers to sit in the house as part of a group of 92 entitled to do so.
See also:
Before 1975 local government in Scotland was organised on the county system. In 1975, the Conservative government of Edward Heath introduced a system of two-tier local government in Scotland, divided between large Regional Councils and smaller District Councils. The only exceptions to this were the three Island Councils, Western Isles, Shetland and Orkney which had the combined powers of Regions and Districts. In 1995 the Conservative government of John Major decided to abolish this system and merge their powers into new Unitary Authorities, roughly equivalent to the old counties.
The power invested in these authorities is administered by elected councillors. There are currently around 1,200 in total, each paid a part-time salary for the undertaking of their duties. Each authority elects a Provost to chair meetings of the authority's council and act as a figurehead for the area. The office of Provost is roughly equivalent to that of the English Mayor. The four main cities of Scotland, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee have a Lord-Provost rather than a Provost, although their duties are essentially the same.
The councillors are elected every four years.
There are in total 32 Unitary Authorities, the largest being the City of Glasgow with more than 600,000 inhabitants, the smallest, Orkney, with less than 20,000 people living there.
List of Unitary Authorities
Community Councils are relatively powerless institutions designed to represent the interests of local people. In many areas they do not function at all, but some work very effectively at trying to improve their local area.
Candidates for Community Councils cannot stand on a party-political ticket.
The largest political party operating in Scotland is the Labour Party. They replaced the Liberals as Scotland's main political force in the early twentieth century and traditionally represent the interests of workers and trade-unionists. They currently operate as the senior partners in a coalition Scottish Executive.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) was formed in the 1930s and exists to try and achieve Scottish independence. They are broadly on the left-of-centre and are in the European Social-Democratic mould. They are currently the second most popular party electorally, although their highpoint appears to have been in the 1970s.
The Tory Party has declined in popularity in recent years. They are the only party ever to have achieved an outright majority of Scottish votes at any general election, in 1951. However at the 1997 General Election they failed to get a single Scottish MP elected and at the following General Election they returned only one. They are on the right-of-centre, but many Scots used to vote for them simply because of their unionist credentials.
The Liberal Democrats usually manage to secure decent representation in Scotland. They currently operate as junior partners in a coalition Scottish Executive.
The Scottish Green Party have had great electoral success since devolution, providing the first green parliamentarian in the UK's history, Robin Harper.
The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) were formed in the late 1990s and operate as the foremost political party of the far-left in Scotland today. They are particularly strong in urban Scotland, the traditional heartland of the Labour Party.
The Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party (SSCUP) were formed just in time to contest the 2003 election to the Scottish Parliament. Unsurprisingly they were formed to work for the rights of Scotland's senior citizens. More surprisingly, they managed to get one MSP elected, John Swinburne, their party founder and leader.
See also:
See also:
Overview
The Scottish Parliament
List of First Ministers:
List of Presiding Officers:
See also:Scotland at Westminster
The House of LordsLocal Government
See also:Political Parties
Further Referance
