Scottish independence: the essential guide Following the signing of the Edinburgh agreement on 15 October 2012, a referendum on Scottish independence will take place in 2014. Study the issue in depth and learn all you need to know about what happens next with our essential guide 3. A brief history Scotlands relations with its larger neighbour have often been difficult, none more so than in the wars of independence 700 years ago led by William Wallace and then Robert the Bruce. He defeated Edward II, then attempting to subjugate Scotland, at Bannockburn in 1314. After other cross border disputes, including Scotlands defeat at Flodden by the English in 1513, the Scottish and English crowns were unified in 1603 when King James VI of Scotland became overall monarch of the British isles. In 1707, that union was cemented by Scotland and Englands political union, forced on Scotland in part by a financial crisis following the abject failure of its colony in Panama, the so-called Darien adventure. All political power moved to London, but Scotland retained its own legal system, churches and universities. In 1745, the pretender to the British throne, Bonnie Prince Charlie, led the Jacobite revolt against Hanoverian rule by London. Despite reaching as far south as Derby, that ended in crushing defeat at Culloden in 1746. In the 1800s, Scotlands economy strengthened, its cities boomed and its citizens took a leading role in the British empire. But proposals to give Scotland some form of home rule within the UK have been live since William Gladstones era as Liberal leader in the 1880s. After several failed attempts at Westminster, notably in 1913 and 1979, a Scottish parliament was finally reestablished in 1999 in Edinburgh with wide-ranging policy making and legal powers but dependent on a direct grant from London. In May 2011, Salmond and the SNP unexpectedly won an historic landslide victory giving the nationalists majority control of the Scottish parliament, enabling the first minister to demand that independence referendum. 4. What happens next? The Scottish parliament is now studying the detail of the Scottish governments proposals for staging and running the referendum, which include, as expected, extending the vote to 16 and 17 year olds for the first time in a major poll in the UK. (The Scottish government has previously allowed 16 and 17 year olds to vote in some health board elections and crofting commission elections). Advertisement Salmonds government has published two bills, on the franchise and on the running of the referendum. After initialling resisting any involvement from UK bodies in the referendum, his government has also agreed it will be overseen by the UK Electoral Commission. The commissions proposals on the question, and other major issues such as the spending limits and duration of the official 16 week campaign, were all accepted by Salmonds government. Salmond had originally wanted to pose the question: Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country, but this was seen by experts as biased in favour of a yes vote. Voting will be restricted to Scottish residents registered to vote in local council elections (plus the one-off extra list of 16 and 17 year old voters; about 124,000 teenagers in that age group will be eligible to vote in the referendum). The two referendum bills are timetabled to get royal assent in November 2013, when the Scottish government will also publish a white paper detailing its prospectus for independence and setting out the Scottish National partys vision for an independent Scotland. On 18 May 2014, the final 16 week referendum campaign leading up to a referendum would be due to start. Then both pro-independence and pro-UK campaigns will intensify, with millions of pounds being spent on television broadcasts, advertising and rallies. The Electoral Commissions spending limits for the campaigns and participants could allow more than £6m to be spent in that 16 weeks alone. The Yes Scotland and their opponents in Better Together, the two official campaigns, will be given a limit of £1.5m each. The two main pro-independence parties, the SNP and Scottish Greens, would be allowed to spend £1.49m in total, while the pro-UK Labour, Tories and Lib Dems have a collective limit of £1.43m. Trade unions, business groups and other civic groups will also be able to register. Alongside all these steps on the referendum, the UK government will be putting the final touches to new measures to give the Scottish parliament the authority to set its own income tax rates, borrow some £2bn, and devolve stamp duty (the tax on house sales), land tax and landfill tax, in new powers that will come into force in 2016 – assuming the SNP loses the referendum.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 20:08:10 +0000
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