JOHANNES GUTENBERG-UNIVERSITÄT MAINZ
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH – SS 2002
PROSEMINAR: CULTURE STUDIES IV – DEVOLUTION
INSTRUCTOR: KIRSTEN KEARNEY

DEVOLUTION IN SCOTLAND

REFEREE: 

SABINE BINDER

TOPIC: DEVOLUTION

1.) HANDOUT:

Introduction

A pact between scoundrels in the nation that sold their fellow citizens for English gold, wrote the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. The scoundrels he is speaking of are those noblemen who gave way to the English occupants because of bribery. Despite protests from the public, Scotland was united with England in 1707.

However, since the uniting of Scotland with England also had very positive aspects - for example, in the form of economic growth - the Scots initially accepted their fate. But later, when oil was found off the Scottish coast and Margaret Thatcher implemented her social policies that went against the grain of Scottish community spirit - the calls for more sovereignty became ever louder.

Since the late 1970s, devolution for Scotland and Wales has been under discussion. As promised in the Labour Party’s manifesto, referendums over the introduction of a certain level of self-government were held on September 11, 1997. The Scottish referendum produced a strong majority for a separate parliament (74%) with limited taxraising powers (63% majority) on a turnout of over 60%. Scotland was expected to have a parliament within 12 months. In Wales, the result was a narrow majority, on a low poll, for a Welsh parliament. Unlike the House of Commons, the regional parliaments are to be elected by proportional representation.

The Scottish Parliament

On 1 July, 1999 the Scottish Parliament took control of Scotland′s domestic affairs - including health, education, local government, economic development, transport, the environment, rural affairs and law and order. The Parliament now has a historic responsibility to meet the domestic aspirations of the people of Scotland. Many Premiers have promised the Scots more rights - Tony Blair is the first who has kept his promise. In 1999, the Scots have elected their own Parliament. And this Parliament, sitting in Edinburgh, also has many powers. The most important is the right to levy a separate income tax and law-making powers in areas that do not affect the interests of the UK as a whole. There are 129 representatives in the Parliament elected under an additional member system which ensures a strong degree of proportionality. 73 of those 129 Members are directly elected via a proportional system using eight electoral regions that coincide with the eight pre-1999 European Parliament seats and 56 are drawn from the existing European Parliament constituencies in Scotland. The single member constituencies are the same as the Westminster parliamentary constituencies except that ′Orkney & Shetland′ has been split into ′Orkney Islands′ and ′Shetland Islands′. The political party with the most MSPs makes the government.

The first elections were held on May 6, 1999 and, as no party secured an outright majority, the Scottish Labour Party and Scottish Liberal Democrats have formed a Partnership Government. The Scottish Executive will be responsible to the Parliament for the discharge of Ministerial functions in respect of devolved matters. The Scottish Parliament has the power to make some of its own laws. These are called "Acts of the Scottish Parliament". The Executive is in turn accountable to the Parliament. It can make laws about any areas except reserved matters – areas that only the UK Parliament can decide.

Thus the parliament controls:

• health
• education and training
• local government
• economic development
• the law and home affairs
• the environment
• agriculture, fisheries and forestry
• sport and the arts
• research and statistics
• any number of smaller issues
• The control of local authority expenditure, non-domestic rates and other local taxation is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which also has the power to increase or decrease the basic rate of income tax by up to 3p in the pound

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