Scottish devolution referendum, 1979

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The Scottish referendum of 1979 was a post-legislative referendum held in Scotland only, over whether there was support for Scotland Act 1978, which if passed would have created an assembly for Scotland. There were special conditions on the referendum in the Act which said that for the Act not to be repealed, at least 40% of the electorate would have to vote Yes in the referendum.

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[edit] Party support

Although Labour and the Scottish National Party (SNP) both officially supported devolution, support was split in both parties. Labour was divided between those who favoured devolution and those who wanted to maintain full Westminster government: in the SNP, which had an agenda of full Scottish independence, there was division between those who saw devolution as a stepping stone to independence and those who feared it might distract from their ultimate goal.

[edit] The tax issue

In addition to all the arguments which traditionally surround discussions of Scottish devolution or independence, the public debate in 1979 was dominated by the issue of taxation. Since the proposed assembly would have no independent powers to vary taxes, it would be greatly restricted in its scope of operation, and this made it possible for the "no" campaign to play very plausibly on fears of an impotent new layer of bureaucracy. As a result, many voters who believed in devolution in principle were unwilling to support this particular devolution bill.

[edit] Results

The referendum was held on March 1, 1979. The result was a narrow majority in favour of devolution. However, because of the low turnout the percentage of the electorate that voted yes was less than 40%, so the condition in the Act was not met.

The electorate were asked to vote yes or no: "Do you want the provisions of the Scotland Act to be put into effect?"

Yes votes Yes votes (%) No votes No (%) Turnout (%)
1,230,937 51.6 1,153,500 48.4 63.8

Even though the majority voted Yes, the government rejected the referendum because the condition that 40% of the electorate should vote Yes was not met. The Scotland Act 1978 was repealed, in March 1979 by 301-206.

[edit] Scotland said "yes"

In the wake of the referendum the disappointed supporters of the bill conducted a protest campaign under the slogan "Scotland said 'yes'". They argued that the 40% rule was undemocratic and that the referendum results justified the establishment of the assembly. However, the election of the first Thatcher government later in 1979, with a majority in parliament and a policy strongly opposed to devolution, diverted public attention and the devolution issue was lost from the mainstream political agenda for a decade. Although England forgot the issue, there was much bitterness in Scotland about being cheated out of their parliament by the voting conditions - something reflected in the poor election results Margaret Thatcher experienced in Scotland.

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[edit] References

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