1979 жылғы Шотландия референдумы және үкіметтік өзгерістер

Post legislative referendum

A post legislative referendum was held in Scotland in 1979 to decide whether there was a sufficient support for a Scottish Assembly proposed in the Scotland Act 1978 among the Scottish electorate. This was an act to create a devolved deliberative assembly for Scotland. A majority (51.6%) of voters supported the proposal, but an amendment to the Act stipulated that it would be repealed if less than 40% of the total electorate voted in favour. As there was a turnout of 64% the "Yes" vote represented only 32.9% of the registered electorate, and the act was subsequently repealed. A second referendum to create a devolved legislature in Scotland was held in 1997 under a newly elected Labour government, which led to the enactment of the Scotland Act 1998 and the creation of a devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999.

Following the Scottish National Party gaining its first peacetime MP in the 1967 Hamilton by election and Plaid Cymru's first win at the 1966 Carmarthen by election in Wales, the United Kingdom government set up the Royal Commission on the Constitution, referred to as the Kilbrandon Commission, in 1969. The royal commission was intended to look at the constitutional structure of the United Kingdom and consider changes that should be made. The final report was published in 1973. The commission examined various models of devolution, federalism and confederalism, on top of the break up of the UK into separate sovereign states. In relation to Scotland, eight of the commission's members supported a Scottish Assembly, via a devolved structure. It would recommended that the assembly would have around 100 members, elected under single transferable vote from multi member constituencies. The assembly would obtain powers in the areas of education, environment, health, home affairs, legal matters and social services, while agriculture, fisheries and food would be divided between the assembly and the UK government.

After returning to power with a minority government in February 1974 election, Harold Wilson's Labour government published a white paper entitled Democracy and Devolution: Proposals for Scotland and Wales, published in September 1974. The party gained a narrow majority of three seats in the election in October. By 1976, the Labour government, now led by James Callaghan, had lost its parliamentary majority entirely following a series of adverse by election results. To provide a stable majority in the House of Commons, the government made an agreement with the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru whereby, in return for their support in Commons votes, the government would instigate legislation to devolve political powers from Westminster to Scotland and Wales. The Scotland and Wales Bill was subsequently introduced in November 1976, but the government struggled to get the legislation through parliament. The Conservative opposition opposed its second reading, and on the first day of committee 350 amendments were put down. Progress slowed to a crawl. In February 1977, the Bill's cabinet sponsor Michael Foot tabled a guillotine motion to attempt to halt the delays. The motion was rejected and the government was forced to withdraw the Bill.

Date(s)conductedPollsterClientSamplsizeYesNoDon'tknowLead 1979 devolution referendum – 48.4% N/A3.2%MORIScottish Daily Express1,003 16% TieMORIScottish Daily Express1,03733%12% 21%MORILWT Weekend World1,01528%16%27%MORILWT Weekend World1,00227%10%36%

+Results by counting area Counting AreaValid VotesTurnout (%)VotesProportion of VotesProportion of electorateYesNoYesNoYesNoBorders51,52666.4%20,74630,78040.3%59.7%26.7%39.7%Central130,40165.9%71,29659,10554.7%45.3%36.0%29.9%Dumfries and Galloway67,40164.1%27,16240,23940.3%59.7%25.8%38.2%Fife160,68865.3%86,25274,43653.7%46.3%35.0%30.2%Grampian196,42957.2%94,944101,48548.3%51.7%27.6%29.5%Highland88,24764.7%44,97343,27451.0%49.0%33.0%31.7%Lothian373,64265.9%187,221186,42150.1%49.9%33.0%32.9%Orkney Islands7,54354.1%2,1045,43927.9%72.1%15.1%39.0%Shetland Islands7,48650.3%2,0205,46627.0%73.0%13.6%36.7%Strathclyde1,105,11862.5%596,519508,59954.0%46.0%33.7%28.7%Tayside184,80763.0%91,48293,32549.5%50.5%31.2%31.8%Western Isles11,15149.9%6,2184,93355.8%44.2%27.8%22.1%Total2,384,43963.0%1,230,9371,153,50051.6%48.4%32.5%30.5%

The result was a majority in favour of devolution. A total of 1,230,937 (51.6%) In particular, the Scottish National Party (SNP) carried out a survey of the electoral register in the Edinburgh Central constituency. This appeared to show that the register was so out of date that even in an area where major support for a "yes" vote might be expected, achievement of 40% of the electorate was virtually unattainable. This was because the majority of electors lived in older tenements or newer Council blocks of flats where flat numbers were not specified. The work of electoral registration staff to obtain an accurate current register was almost impossible. Under the terms of the Act, it could then be repealed by a Statutory instrument to be approved by Parliament. The government's decision to abandon devolution led the SNP to withdraw its support for the Labour government. It was in a minority in Parliament and had relied on deals with the smaller parties, including the SNP, for its survival. After establishing that the Liberals and the SNP would vote against the government in a confidence motion, the Conservative opposition tabled a motion on 28 March. The government was defeated by one vote, and a UK general election was subsequently called. This was won by the Conservatives, and Parliament voted to repeal the Act on 20 June 1979. A second referendum to create a devolved legislature in Scotland was held in 1997 under a newly elected Labour government, which led to the enactment of the Scotland Act 1998 and the creation of a devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999.