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... oped its own system of law, which is based on civil law; this carried on after the union although England practices a form of common law. The devolved parliament will control this and so, the devolved parliament can carefully debate law specifically with Scotland in mind, as they do not have to worry about any English laws being loop holes for Scottish law. This would make Scotland's parliament more democratic because the people who it will be enforced against decide the law. There was a reorganisation of local government in Scotland in 1975, when the counties and burghs were abolished and replaced by nine regions and three island areas. The nine regions were divided into districts, and a council administers these units.
The council members are elected on a fixed term membership of four years. This was changed again in 1996 when council borders were changed. This was a form of devolution within Scotland itself and its local government and proved to have a good impact on Scotland, as people felt that law was being made closer to them and so were happier with the system. Since the Act of Union there has evolved a framework for the governance of Scotland which is basically sound and which has shown itself adaptable to change. (Cons. 1992) This shows that the Conservatives were finally coming around to accepting Scotland as needing devolved power. They explain that Scotland is adaptable to change and so imply that devolution will not have any major impact that Scotland will not be able to cope with or find a way in which to adapt. The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) is devoted to independence for Scotland and is happy to do this through devolution and pushes for Scotland to have greater European Union (EU) involvement, this view must be representative of the Scottish population as the SNP are now second to Labour in Scotland and hold over 27 % of the vote.
Scotland if they wanted to could pull out of the union at any time: - The union with England which was considered so advantageous at the time, could be broken if it ceases to work to Scotland's benefit. (Gamble) So why if people want independence, do they not take it? Perhaps they are afraid of the impact of independence in one blow and would rather ease into a position of independence. This can be seen to show that Scotland are afraid of the impact that devolution will have and are even more afraid of the independence they want. Others in Scotland particularly those in or those supporting the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) think that anything which allows Scotland to make more decisions is a step in the right direction in favour of independence. They embrace the day when Scotland returns to an independent state. However, they do realise that independence will be an issue for the people to decide and the SNP feel that If we want it (independence) all we have to do is vote for it In a recent BBC opinion poll 71 % of Scots said that they thought a devolved Parliament would be a step towards Scotland becoming independent.
However there is the question about What if the Tories get in? and if Scotland is coming close to choosing between independence and keeping the devolved assembly, can the devolution be taken away so that independence is harder to achieve for the Scottish. Although this is unlikely considering the political position of the Conservatives at the moment and the problems they would face if the Conservatives did follow a policy such as this, it is not impossible in the future and it may well lead to a massive impact on both Britain and Scotland if this were to happen due to the outcry there is likely to be. This then leads us to believe that the Scottish Parliament cannot survive without a written constitution with clauses strictly concerning devolution within each country.
The Scottish parliament is likely to be more representative than Westminster as there is an electoral agreement between Labour and the Lib Dems to achieve a 50: 50 male: female representation in the assembly. This is likely to have a good impact on Scotland, as a group will make the decisions, which is more representative of the population than Westminster. With this 50 / 50 representation, will the politicians in the Scottish assembly be representative as people may not want a man or woman in certain constituencies and the politicians may not be of high standards. To achieve this level of representation would mean single sex constituency elections, which would be deemed as sexist by the people, and so not having the effect that Blair wanted when he announced it, in the hope of the impact of his speech would lead to people thinking the Labour and Liberal Democrats want women to be politically equal to men. He may have also been trying to prove that Labour and the Liberal Democrats are fairer than the Conservatives, hopefully securing more seats for the present government in the next general election and in the Scottish assembly. The chances of a Conservative majority in either the next general election or the Scottish Parliament are not very high, and so the repercussions of Labours actions could prove to be a large disadvantage to Labour if they do not endeavour to keep as close to a 50 / 50 representation as possible, as the Labour public opinion will fall.
This leads to the West lothian Question introduced by Labour MP Tam Dalyell, where Westminster MPs will not be able to vote on Scottish legislature, but Scottish MPs will be able to vote on legislature passing through Westminster. This means that Scottish MPs will represent people from Britain who did not actually vote for them this can have a good or bad impact on Britain, depending on the legislature going through Parliament. Devolution for Scotland will have negative and positive impacts on both Britain and Scotland. The impact may be short term or long term but will still effect people, their views and their future. Overall, the impact of any kind of large-scale change in the British political system will take time. Any type of reform especially devolution, which effects many people, is likely to prove problematic until things settle down.
The reform will need some kind of written constitution to settle arrangements and responsibilities and to make these problems as minimal as possible. Negative impacts could have a positive effect on some people, but not on the majority, the same goes for positive impacts. A positive impact can have different effects on both Britain and Scotland; a positive impact on Scotland could have a very negative effect on Britain. Overall, the effect of devolution will have a positive effect on Scotland in many ways, but it may take time for the effects can be noticed and time will be needed for legislation to go through the assembly.
The effect on Britain will be more of a mixture of good and bad impacts, but the effect of devolution will make Britain as a whole more democratic, and so would be classed as a good impact.
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Research essay sample on Scottish Parliament Liberal Democrats
