Scottish Independence is restoration NOT secession (Part 5)

NOTE: I DECIDED TO CONDENSE THIS POST SO THAT I COULD POST IT BEFORE THE SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM ON 18 SEPTEMBER 2014. I INTEND TO REVISIT IT AFTER THAT DATE TO EXPAND ON THE DETAIL.

Introduction:

This part covers the period from 2003-2013. It starts with the second Scottish Parliament elections. In 2005 the constituency boundaries for Westminster elections in Scotland was reduced to 59 following a scheduled boundary review which took account of the constituency boundaries for the Scottish Parliament.

2003 - 2013:

Second Scottish Parliament Elections - 2003

On 1 May 2003 the second elections for the Scottish Parliament were held. Once again a coalition of Labour and Scottish Liberal Democrats formed the Scottish Executive.

ELECTION RESULTS:

Labour 50 (-6) 

Conservative 18 (-)

Lib. Dem. 17 (-)

SNP 27 (-8)

Green 7 (+6)

SSP 6 (+5)

Others 4 (+3)

Westminster Elections - 2005

A General Election for the UK Parliament was held on 5 May 2005. A plan in 2003 by the Boundary Commission led to the reduction of the number of Westminster constituencies in Scotland to 59. The results were as follows -

ELECTION RESULTS:

Labour 41 (-5) nominal change, (-15)

Lib. Dem. 11 (+2) nominal change, (+1)

SNP 6 (+2) nominal change, (+1)

Conservative 1 (+1) nominal change, (-)

Third Scottish Parliament Elections - 2007

On 3 May 2007 the third elections for the Scottish Parliament were held. This time the SNP formed a minority administration after the Liberal Democrats refused to form a coalition with the SNP.

ELECTION RESULTS:

Labour 46 (-4)

Conservative 17 (-1)

Lib. Dem. 16 (-1)

Greens 2 (-5)

SNP 47 (+20)

Others 1 (-)

Scottish Local Government elections were also held on the same day as the Scottish Parliament elections. Part of the agreement for a coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats to form a Scottish Executive in 2003 was that Local Government elections were to be conducted using Proportional Representation (PR). Later it was agreed that the type of PR to be used was the Single Transferable Vote (STV).

The number of Local Government councillors elected in Scotland at these elections were as follows -

ELECTION RESULTS:

SNP 363 ( +182)

Labour 348 (-161)

Ind. 192 (-39)

Lib. Dem. 166 (-39)

Conservative 143 (+20)
Green 8 (+6)
Others 2 (-)

There was an embarrassing fiasco at the counts as three different methods of election were being used. The Labour/ Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive had been well warned about this possibility but chose to ignore the advice.

The SNP administration renamed the Scottish Executive as the Scottish Government. A consultation paper 'Choosing Scotland's Future: A National Conversation - Independence and responsibility in the modern world' was published. The inside front cover of this consultation paper bore the following quotation -

'No man has a right to fix the boundary of the march of a nation: no man has a right to say to his country, "Thus far shalt thou go and no further".

                                                  - Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891)'

Plans for an Independence Referendum were reluctantly dropped when it became clear that there was no possibility of getting a Bill through the current Parliament.

Fourth Scottish Parliament Elections - 2011

On 5 May 2011 the fourth elections for the Scottish Parliament were held. For the first time one political party gained an absolute majority in an electoral system where this could supposedly not happen - according to the people who designed it. The SNP received an outright majority and the results at the ballot boxes were as follows -

ELECTION RESULTS:

SNP 69 (+23)
Labour 37 (-7)
Conservative 15 (-5)
Lib. Dem. 5 (-12)
Greens 2 (-)
Others 1 (-)

Local Government Elections - 2012

These elections were held on 3 May 2012. The numbers of local government councillors were as follows -

ELECTION RESULTS:

SNP 425 (+62)

Labour 394 (+46)

Ind. 196 (+4)

Conservative 115 (-28)

Lib. Dem. 71 (-95)

Greens 14 (+6)

Others 8 (+6)

NOTE: 1 additional councillor was elected to the previous number.

Timetable for Independence Referendum (up to 26 November 2013)

Consultation for an Independence Referendum began on 25 January 2012 and closed on 11 May 2012.

On 15 October 2012 the Edinburgh Agreement was made between the UK and Scottish Governments. This promoted a Section 30 agreement under the Scotland Act 1998. Both governments agreed to respect the outcome of that Referendum in 2014 - whatever that might be.

On 30 January 2013 the Scottish Government accepted the Electoral Commission's recommendation on the wording of the Independence Referendum question:

                       'Should Scotland be an independent country?                        Yes/No'

On 21 March 2013 the date of the Scottish Independence Referendum was announced - it was to be on 18 September 2014.

The Scottish Referendum (Franchise) Act 2013 (SIRA) was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 29 June 2013 and received the Royal Assent on 7 August 2013.

The White Paper - 'Scotland's Future - a guide to an independent Scotland' was published on 26 November 2013.

Scottish Sovereignty and Independence

"Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law."

- Thomas Jefferson

Originally sovereignty was considered to be the absolute power of monarchs but through time that idea has developed in various ways. In Scotland the concept of popular sovereignty first emerged following the death of Alexander III in 1286 when Scotland was without a king. The original concept was called 'the community of the realm' but has evolved into a democratic style where 'the sovereignty of the Scottish people' now rests with the total registered electorate. As far as I am aware the first written example of it is in the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 -

'...But after all, if this prince shall leave these principles he hath so nobly pursued, and consent that we or our kingdom be subjected to the king or people of England, we will immediately endeavour to expel him as our enemy and as the subverter both of his own and our rights and we will make another king, who will defend our liberties...'.

Popular or democratic sovereignty is the very antithesis of parliamentary sovereignty (the supremacy of the Westminster Parliament) which has existed in English constitutional law since it was established through the English Bill of Rights in 1689. Up until the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 the constitutional and legal effect on 'the sovereignty of the Scottish people' was that it had merely been unavailable. A specific example of the contradiction between popular sovereignty and parliamentary sovereignty can be found in a 1954 legal finding by Lord Cooper in the Scottish Court of Session -

'...The principle of the unlimited sovereignty of Parliament is a distinctively English principle which has no counterpart in Scottish constitutional law...I have difficulty in seeing why it should have been supposed that the new Parliament of Great Britain must inherit all of the peculiar characteristics of the English Parliament but none of the Scottish Parliament, as if all that happened in 1707 was that Scottish representatives were admitted to the Parliament of England. That is not what was done...'

- (MacCormick v Lord Advocate 1954 (1953 SC 396))

The Treaty of Union in 1707 abolished neither the Parliaments of Scotland or England as clarified by Article 3 -

'III. That the United Kingdom of Great Britain be represented by One and the same Parliament, to be stiled, the Parliament of Great Britain.'

In her speech to the initial meeting of the devolved Scottish Parliament Dr. Winnie Ewing MSP (Scottish National Party), now retired, said -

'...the Scottish Parliament, which adjourned on 25 March 1707, is hereby reconvened...'

- Scottish Parliament Official Report, Vol. 1, No. 1, 12 May 1999.

In 1989 the Members of the Westminster Parliament in Scotland for the Labour and the Liberal Democrat parties were part of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, one of them was Gordon Brown MP (now the British Prime Minister). They all signed a document, 'A Claim of Right for Scotland', which reaffirmed 'the sovereignty of the Scottish people' and their right to choose the type of government best suited to their needs. From the first elections to the Scottish Parliament up until the elections in May this year they formed a coalition which represented the majority of Members of the Scottish Parliament and as such were in control. They are now part of the opposition and are opposed to any referendum on, or which includes the option of, independence.

Several weeks ago a White Paper, which is based on 'the sovereignty of the Scottish people', was launched by Alex Salmond MSP, MP, First Minister of Scotland, as a consultation with the people of Scotland, it is called 'Choosing Scotland's Future: A National Conversation - Independence and responsibility in the modern world'. In an Opinion column in 'The Scotsman' newspaper Aileen Campbell MSP (Scottish National Party) asked the following question -

'...And what is so scary about fostering a national debate on the future of the country anyway?...'

The first practical example of popular sovereignty being the basis of a system of government is to be found in the Constitution of the United States. That document starts with the words 'WE THE PEOPLE...' which clearly infers popular sovereignty. Anything which follows those words and contradicts them, no matter how remotely, is therefore unconstitutional.

'...the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone...'

- James Madison, Federalist 46

The author of the phrase 'WE THE PEOPLE' was James Wilson who was born in Ceres (Carskerdo) near St. Andrews in Fife.

'No man has a right to fix the boundary of the march of a nation; no man has a right to say to his country, "Thus far shalt thou go and no further".'

- Charles Stewart Parnell (1846 - 1891).