The Scottish Government

Jean-Jacques Rousseau concept of the ‘general will’ of the people has been demonstrated over the past few weeks. The ‘general will’ of the people has, clearly conveyed that change is now inevitable and a referendum is essential.

To initiate a referendum, evidence of the ‘general will’ can be highlighted, through either a petition, or as I advocate through the ballot box at the next Scottish election. This separate ballot paper should be simple: do you want a referendum, YES or NO.

Of course independence would require a referendum however further devolution would require another referendum I am not sure about that one the people of scotland already voted for devolution with tax raising powers. The people of scotland had the choice of more power or less they chose the option that westminster offered for most power for the parliament. Had they been asked at the time would they have went further still. As for how a referendum could be initiated perhaps there should be some mechanism whereby if a certain percentage of the population sign a petition then there has to be an automatic referendum.

That there should be a referendum is without doubt after all who really believes that politicians can make decisions for us. Any referendum should be held as soon as possible to get this whole question out of the way one way or the other. While the independance question is important there are many more pressing needs in Scotland that the Executive need to address now without this distraction. I disagree with the two contributors above, there is no need for a petition or to wait until the next election, do it now.

Voting rights brings up the question of a written Constitution. I believe it would be helpful to begin preparing a Draft Constitution, which would set out who is eligible to vote and citizenship rights. I know a few English people living in Scotland who are worried about these issues and a Draft Constitution would set out exactly what our rights would be.

Those of us who live furth of Scotland within the EU are deprived of our constitutional right to vote in elections for the Scottish parliament due to the supreme arrogance of the so-called UK government, which claims it to be a "local election", even though we can vote for the 'English' and the European parliaments. It is high time this anomaly is corrected.
Similarly it is essential that we be NOT deprived of the right to express our opinion when the referendum is held. Although we may live outside Scotland, it does not mean that we do not hold the best interests of our country close to our hearts.

This is the point who should get the vote in a referendum. Everyone who lives in scotland and i mean resident, only people born in scotland wether resident or resident in another country?
Is it fair on the people of scotland who live here to be subject to independance and all the taxes and laws that will come with it, while those who voted for independabce but live and reside in another country will not be effected by it!

#4. Derick - Stirlingshire
Saturday, August 25, 2007 16:00

We do already have a draft constitution, it's call the Scotland Act 1998.

Here is a link:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/19980046.htm

All it needs is some tarting up with regard to 'reserved issues' and Robert is your esteemed relative.

If you are on the electoral register you ought to be permitted to vote for Holyrood and for the proposed referendum.

But please, postal votes, dodgy ballot questions/ballot paper instructions?

Can we look at other systems that we know have worked, check out other systems that equally have failed before taking anyone's word that 'of course these systems are robust'?

It is acceptable to fail, it is not acceptable not to learn from our mistakes and take measures to ensure the same mistakes are not made again.

""...There must, therefore, be due consideration of appropriate forms of legislation for such a vote, and of the question of how a referendum could be initiated by the Scottish Parliament...""

Agree the questions to be put:
ie
a)revert back to direct rule from Westminster, London is better at this than we are.

b)maintain the status quo, things are just fine as they are.

c)more powers, short of relinquishing dependence on Whitehall, to be negotiated with the electorate.
What do we need and why do we need it?

d)relinquish all dependency on the Government in London and assume full responsibility for governing Scotland ourselves(or words acceptable to that effect)

In the end I believe it will come down to c) or, I'd hope, d)
Everyone feels that their views were important but it is just as important that they should be heard and their views put into relative context.

Someone might just put forward a compelling case for an extreme religious or ultra left/right wing course which very few share any enthusiasm for.
We need to be able to say in future, yes we heard what you said but the rest of us didn't share your values.

eg Those who favour return to direct rule from Westminster e.g. should be permitted to understand that their view is not shared by the majority rather than being disregarded out of hand as being irrelevant.

We could use this type of forum to divine which basic options are most favoured

We could also perhaps make this forum much easier to find and invite more comment.

Perhaps provide hyperlinks from the main party websites, churches, unions, FE institutions, charities, public offices etc

Since the original main board shut down it is now problematic to navigate down to these strings, as should be apparent by the remarkable down turn in the number of contibutions for the last few days of postings.

It took me several dead ends to find my way here, and I am only sure of finding my way back again by having saved this URL on my PC.

Louise (2) says "Of course independence would require a referendum however further devolution would require another referendum I am not sure about that one"

It seems to be very widely agreed amongst the people of Scotland that the "status quo" is no longer an option. So far as the politicians are concerned, both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats agree that the Scottish Parliament needs additional powers. Even the Labour Party in Scotland, under Wendy Alexander, is apparently taking this view, and Wendy can no doubt get her good friend Gordon to see this also. Of course there would be negotiations involving these parties and the Scottish Executive about exactly how much additional powers, but, since there is apparently a concensus amongst the politicians that "more powers" for the parliament are needed, and a groundswell of support for this amongst the people, there is nothing to stop this from happening.

The 1997 referendum gave authorisation for devolution INCLUDING authorisation for government ministers, with the consent of the Scottish Parliament and Houses of Commons and Lords, to remove reservations on the powers of the Scottish Parliament. Since that devolution process (including "further devolution" if this is required) has already been authorised by a referendum, there is no need for a further referendum on further devolution.

However, while "further devolution" doesn't need a referendum, "independence" obviously does.

The referendum should be on a simple, straightforward, "independence - yes or no?" type question, and it should take place as soon as this can possibly be arranged.