Democracy in Scotland - thoughts from our supporters
Nicola Sturgeon shocked the whole of the UK by announcing her decision to resign as First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party.
A few weeks later, the race to become Scotland's next First Minister is in full swing.
The leadership candidates have been debating a variety of topics, but issues of independence and devolution are centre stage.
We asked our Scottish supporters for their views on democracy in Scotland. We received 670 responses.
73.6% of our supporters said that Scotland should be an independent country. This is much higher support for independence than amongst the Scottish public at large. Recent polling suggests 44% of people in Scotland support independence. [1]
Our supporters who want Scotland to remain in the United Kingdom had mixed views on whether Holyrood has the right amount of power. 41.8% of supporters said that the balance of power is 'about right', while 31.1% said that Holyrood has 'too little' power, and 27.1% said it has 'too much' power.
There has recently been fierce debate over the powers of Holyrood and Westminster because the UK Government blocked the Gender Recognition Reform Bill which was passed by the Scottish Parliament.
The Westminster Government used Section 35 of the Scotland Act to stop the bill getting royal assent on the grounds that it would interfere with the UK-wide Equality Act. This is a power that Westminster had never used until now.
Most of our supporters were unhappy with this move. 78.4% told us that the UK Government was wrong to block the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.
Here’s what they said –
“This could be the start of many attempts by the Westminster government to block bills passed by the Scottish Parliament. Democracy is at stake.”
“It is a decision for Scotland made by an elected Scottish government”
“I do not think that Westminster should block any law passed in Holyrood on a devolved issue. It shows that Westminster has no regard for the Scotland Parliament.”
When it came to the voting systems at Westminster and Holyrood, 84.9% of supporters said they preferred the voting system at Holyrood to Westminster’s.
Here’s why –
“Holyrood use a PR system that makes each vote count, unlike the FPTP system that only ever returns a minority representing government.”
“PR is far superior to first past the post in terms of ensuring views are taken into consideration and that all votes matter.”
The Scottish Parliament is elected using the Additional Member System. This system produces a fairer, more proportional result than First Past the Post, while preserving the link between individual representatives and constituencies.
So, it is no surprise that 77.4% of our supporters believe that politics works better in Holyrood than Westminster.
Yet, 19.4% of our Scottish supporters believe that politics is not working well in either Holyrood or Westminster.
This suggests that a fairer electoral system in the Scottish Parliament has not been enough to entirely transform democracy for the Scottish people.
We still need proportional representation in the House of Commons so that all parts of the UK can be fairly represented in Westminster.
We also need to devolve power away from Westminster to all levels of government. Not just more power to Holyrood, but more power to local councils across Scotland and the whole of the UK.
A UK-wide citizens’ assembly could be tasked to look at how this could work and recommend how to build a better democracy for the UK.
We think the assembly could be the start of a refreshing democratic makeover.