Scottish independence
On the 18th of September 2014, the Scottish referendum for Scottish independence was held. There were two main campaigns running up to the referendum, there was YES Scotland, who were in favour of independence and there was Better Together, who were in favour of keeping the union. On the day of the referendum, approximately 3.6 million Scots voted. The turnout was 85% of the country, which is one of the highest turnouts for any election or referendum in the world. The No vote won by 55% and the Yes vote had 45% of the votes.
There were pros and cons on both sides, but the best route for Scotland was the no vote. Why? One argument is that we don’t which currency Scotland we would use, according to several politicians home and abroad. Politicians and economy experts say that it would be very little chance we would keep the pound or be able to use the Euro. Alex Salmond claimed that we would get to keep the pound no problem, but there would have been very little chance we would have had a currency union between Scotland and the rest of the
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What would our economy run on? Our country can’t depend on oil, and we certainly wouldn’t be able to stand on our own feet with just oil. We have whisky, tourism, and textiles and banking, though many banks would have left Scotland if we were going independent. This wouldn’t be sufficient for Scotland to run on. Wood Mackenzie, which is a worldwide company which supplies data, analysis and advice in oil, gas, coal, energy and metals, estimated that production and revenue from oil would decline in 2018, but after recent events this has already begun, as a barrel of oil is sitting around 60 pounds, which is very low if you considering the all time high in 2008 when oil was sitting at 150 pounds a
Overall it can be seen as a success for parts of England as they were entitled to independence. In a 1997 poll, people in Scotland were asked whether they felt they were Scottish or British. They answered as followed that 63% indicated that they felt that they were Scottish or more Scottish than British. This would fit in with the Marshall model – those who felt that they were Scots would wish for their own Parliament. So it accomplished the wishes of the Scots making it a success for the Scottish population.
In 2014 however Scotland showed that there was indeed a large amount of voters who believed that Scotland would benefit from exiting the United Kingdom and since then the debate still continues with the SNP pushing for a second referendum.
The referendum was for the nation to grant power to the government to send capable citizens overseas to serve in the war. The referendum was held on the 28th of October 1916 and was only just defeated. Because of the different values in the Labour Party at that time William Hughes and some of the other people split away from Labour and decided to form the Nationalist Party. After the Nationalist Party had been formed Hughes called for another referendum on the issue of conscription in 1917, but once again it was defeated. It was as heated as the first referendum but this one had a slightly larger majority.
The only thing that surprises me the most is that Hillary's supporters completely failing or ignoring the fact that Bernie's supporters didn't voted Bernie because he was running for the Democratic nomination. They voted him because he was Bernie. Nowhere in Democratic establishment or in Hillary's list I can see a single agenda that can match up with what Bernie wanted to deliver. No seeing that there is no possibility of Bernie getting nominated Bernie's supporters will ultimately decide to weigh who is less evil between Trump and Hillary and vote for him or her or even for third party candidate or they can simply decide not to vote. It's their choice. Hillary's supporters can yell about denial all day long and bang their head on wall all
In the recent referendum that took place 14th September 2014. The people of Scotland were asked, “Should Scotland become an independent country?” They had the choice of ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The outcome was 2,001,926 (55.30%) no and 1,617,989 (44.70%) yes, which meant
Although complete sovereignty wasn’t lost over Scotland, the NO vote did cause parliament to devolve some power it held. This is not the first time sovereignty has been lost through Scottish referendums. In 1998 the Scottish parliament was re-established: The Scotland Act established what matters were to be devolved and what matters were to be reserved by Parliament. Devolved matters included health and social care (for example free nursing care for the elderly) and education (for example tuition fees). Reserved matters included defence, foreign policy and the constitution (the UK still controls Scottish independence, as it has the power to over-rule the referendums) Theoretically, Westminster could repeal the Scottish acts. This imbalance of power can cause some policy divergence, for example Scotland passed a law banning smoking in public places before the UK.
In the past, referendums have been used to make some of the biggest constitutional changes in modern times. By definition, a referendum ‘is a general vote by the electorate on a single political question which has been referred to them for a direct decision’. The very name and use of 'referendums' is thought to have originated in the Swiss canton of Graubünden as early as the 16th century where, to this day, still use a form direct democracy to settle many issues. Traditionally, Referendums were rarely used in the UK but, in recent times, they have been gaining popularity by the public and have also been used more often to decide constitutional changes such as the 2016 EU Referendum and the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum. Since the end
Scottish devolution was defeated in the referendum and the two biggest parties campaigned for “No”. The SNP considered the results as a victory for devolution but was against the referendum as they were campaigning about the complete independence.
The process of establishing devolution for Scotland began with the Scotland Act 1978, which made way for a referendum on devolution and attempted to gain more power and legislature abilities for Scotland. The rise of the SNP forced the Labour Government of James Callaghan to react. The terms of this Act stated 40% of the entire electorate had to vote “yes” for devolution and the establishment of a Scottish Assembly, this included those who did not vote which were counted as a “no” vote. The 1979 Referendum, on 1st March, saw a majority of 52% in favour of devolution, to 48% against. At first glance it appears Scotland was successful in its referendum, however only 32.9% of the electorate had joined the majority, meaning the 40% required to achieve devolution was not met. With this failure to achieve devolution, the SNP backed a Tory motion of no confidence in the Labour government which saw the 1979 election being called by just one vote. The 1979 election saw the rise of
A referendum is the only formal process that can be used to change the written words of the Constitution but it isn’t the only way Commonwealth Parliament can gain powers. States can refer or give their power to Commonwealth Parliament by passing an act.
The SNP main goal was Scotland independence and this issue raised in the 1990s. In 1997 elections, the Conservative Party leader John Major rejected the possibility of establishing the Scottish Parliament, however Tony Blair the leader of the Labour Party was with the establishment of the Scottish parliament, which was the reason for winning Blair the majority of
Scottish Independence - Good or Bad Scotland is at a turning point. The 300-year old Union is some say no longer fit for purpose. Some say it was never designed for the 21st century world and it is well past it's sell by date and is holding Scotland back. The Scottish people voted to move forward, with a new, more Scottish approach from an SNP government. But many oppose these views saying that Scotland needs the rest of the UK and that the economic and social problems caused by independence would be catastrophic to the relationships between Scotland and the rest of the UK. In any case the government has published a white paper setting out a vision of independence and responsibility in the modern world. But is this idea beneficial to our country?
One example of registration laws that effect voter participation includes the House Bill 1355. In 2011 Florida voted on House Bill 1355 placing new regulations on community organization that have helped eligible voters to register (Herron, Smith 2013). Seeing as Florida is a swing state and every four years during presidential elections the state and its residents can determine who will be the next president of the United States, it’s important for communities and organizations to mobilize the people to go out and vote. Although a federal judge in 2012 later blocked the legislation that was making it difficult for third party registration organizations the damage was already done. For a prominent voting organization opted out of doing registration drives when the House Bill 1355 was initially passed (Herron, Smith). The implementation of the Bill influenced the upcoming presidential election in 2012 by slowing the voter registration of thousands of Floridians. Bills like the 2011 House Bill 1355 only raises the cost in the rational choice model making it only more probable that people will just opt out of voting because they don’t want to deal with the time-consuming process. When registering to vote one must adhere to the states laws and comply with the process of registration. Because each state has their own legislation and laws that their residents must follow, it crucial for people to get some information on the state registration process in order to vote.
It is precise that we begin by explaining the meaning of the term “Brexit”; it is a portmanteau of the words “Britain” and “Exit”, which was just one of the terms for the results of the 2016 referendum, the other one was “Bremain” (Britain and remain) which was a lot less promoted and controversial. For the 2016 referendum, 52% of the votes went for Britain leaving the European Union, in a poll with 72% of participation, a total of 33.577.342 votes, 17.410.742 for Brexit and 16.577.342 for Britain staying in the European Union (BBC World, 2016). England voted for Brexit, by 53.4% to 46.6%, as did Wales, with Leave getting 52.5% of the vote and Remain 47.5%. Scotland and Northern Ireland both backed staying in the EU. Scotland backed Remain by 62% to 38%, while 55.8% in Northern Ireland voted Remain and 44.2% Leave (Hunt and Wheeler, 2016).
One advantage of using referendums in the UK is that they enable the public that are over 18 to approve or disprove important constitutional changes. An example of a one being used for this purpose is the 1998 referendum which was used to determine whether Blair and the Labour Party should devolve power to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Devolution in Scotland and Wales was introduced in 1998 as the majority of the public voted ‘yes’ in