| Scotland |
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Scotland in the UK
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The Scottish referendum of 1979 was a post-legislative referendum to decide whether there was sufficient support for the Scotland Act 1978 among the Scottish electorate. This was an act to create a devolved deliberative assembly for Scotland. The Act provided for special conditions on the referendum stipulating that for the Act not to be repealed at least 40% of the electorate would have to vote Yes in the referendum.
The referendum resulted in a 51.6% support for the proposal which, with a turnout of 63.8%, fell short of the required 40% condition for the Scotland Act 1978 to be implemented. A second referendum to create a devolved legislature in Scotland was held in 1997, which led to the enactment of the Scotland Act 1998 and the creation of a devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999.
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During the passage of the Scotland Act 1978 through Parliament, an amendment introduced by George Cunningham (a Scot who represented an English seat) added a further requirement that the approval at the referendum be by 40% of Scotland's total registered electorate, rather than by a simple majority.
A total of 1,230,937 (51.6%) voted at the referendum in favour of an Assembly, a narrow majority of about 77,400 over those voting against. However, this total represented only 32.9% of the registered electorate as a whole. The Labour government accepted that the Act's requirements had not been met, and that devolution would therefore not be introduced for Scotland.
Under the terms of the Act, the Act could then be repealed by a Statutory Instrument to be approved by Parliament. However, the government's decision to abandon devolution for Scotland led the Scottish National Party to withdraw its support for the government. A subsequent vote of no confidence led to the resignation of the Callaghan government, and an election was called. The vote to repeal the Act did not happen until 26 July 1979, by which time a Conservative government had come to power under Margaret Thatcher.
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.
The campaign for a "no" vote was much helped by an assurance by former Prime Minister Lord Home of the Hirsel that a future Conservative Government would introduce legislation which would meet the objections. This pledge, made by Lord Home in a personal capacity, was not honoured by the Conservatives when they came to power a few months later.
The referendum was held on 1 March 1979. The electorate were asked to vote yes or no: "Parliament has decided to consult the electorate in Scotland on the question whether the Scotland Act 1978 should be put into effect. Do you want the provisions of the Scotland Act 1978 to be put into effect?"
| Yes: 1,230,937 (51.6%) | No: 1,153,500 (48.4%) | ||
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| Turnout | Total votes cast |
|---|---|
| 63.8% | 2,384,437 |
| Council area | YES vote | NO vote |
|---|---|---|
| Borders | 20,746 | 30,780 |
| Central | 71,296 | 59,105 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 27,162 | 40,239 |
| Fife | 86,252 | 74,436 |
| Grampian | 94,944 | 101,485 |
| Highland | 44,973 | 43,274 |
| Lothian | 187,221 | 186,421 |
| Orkney Islands | 2,104 | 5,439 |
| Shetland Islands | 2,020 | 5,466 |
| Strathclyde | 596,519 | 508,599 |
| Tayside | 91,482 | 93,325 |
| Western Isles | 6,218 | 4,933 |
| TOTAL | 1,230,937 | 1,153,500 |
The result was a narrow majority in favour of devolution. However, Parliament had set a condition that 40% of the registered electorate should vote "Yes" in order to make it valid. The amendment to the Bill which set this condition was moved by George Cunningham, the Scottish-born Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury.
Thus, despite a high turnout of over 60%, devolution was not enacted since less than 40% of electorate voted yes. The Scotland Act 1978 was repealed in March 1979 by a vote of 301-206 in the UK House of Commons.
In the wake of the referendum the disappointed supporters of the bill conducted a protest campaign under the slogan "Scotland said 'yes'". They claimed that the 40% rule was undemocratic and that the referendum results justified the establishment of the assembly.
In particular, the 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 specific flat numbers were not specified. The work of electoral registration staff to obtain an accurate current register was almost impossible, and the same was true of most of Scotland's inner cities and larger towns.
This, along with the high mobility of population inevitable in inner urban areas, does much to explain the historic low turnout in all Britain's inner cities and towns.
Devolution was, however, lost from the mainstream political agenda for a decade.
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