There has been a noticeable decline in support within England for Scotland going it alone.
As parties north of the border mark 100 days until Scotland’s independence referendum, new survey data has revealed a noticeable decline in support within England for Scotland going it alone.
According to new polling published as part of the British Social Attitudes Survey conducted last year, 21 per cent of those in England believe Scotland should be independent, compared to the high watermark of 26 per cent who support this in 2011, the year that the SNP secured an historic overall majority at Holyrood.
The debate meanwhile over Scotland’s position within the Union has done little to change the minds of those in England about how they wish to be governed, with 56 per cent believing it should continue as now with laws made by the UK Parliament – the same figure recorded as for 2012 and 2011.
15 per cent support the idea of directly elected regional assemblies, whilst 19 per cent have backed the idea of a purely English Parliament, mirroring those in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.
Commenting on the findings, the report’s author, Professor John Curtice has said:
“Some have argued that a backlash has been developing south of the border against the advantages that Scotland seemingly enjoys and the demands it continues to make.
“But rather than being fuelled by the independence debate, whatever signs there were of such a reaction have apparently been snuffed out.
“England at least seems to have decided that the union is worth preserving, though whether people in Scotland will take the same view remains to be seen.”
The findings come as Andy Murray has expressed his frustration at Alex Salmond having waved the Scottish flag after his Wimbledon victory last year.
Murray, who last year called on Scots to us their heads rather than their hearts when deciding how to vote in September, told the Sunday Times style magazine over the weekend when asked about the first minister’s actions on centre court:
“He seemed perfectly nice to me but I didn’t like it when he [Salmond] got the Scottish flag up at Wimbledon.”
He added:
“I started competing for Great Britain when I was 11. I’m 27 now and I’ve been competing for Great Britain for 16 years.”
18 Responses to “England supports the Union”
uglyfatbloke
I think we may be talking about two different things here. The English and Welsh legal system and the Scottish one are rather different in principle and structure, though the ends are the same. This is why legislation is framed the way it is with ‘The Turnip-Scruncher Act (England and Wales)’ and ‘The Turnip-Scruncher Act (Scotland) reflecting those differences. The differences are a good deal more far-reaching that just a question of a third choice of verdict; sufficiently so that it would often be extremely difficult to frame legislation that made practical sense in both systems. One of the intended benefits of Holyrood was that it would ease the parliamentary timetable since most Scottish legislation would no longer need to go through the Commons and the Lords. There was nothing very challenging about that since Scottish law was already ‘sovereign’ (for want of a better word) in Scotland anyway; it was just a matter of transferring the processes from one chamber to another.
When we consider British ‘sovereignty’, we are talking about the where the exercise of power lies, but not necessarily where it stems from. In England and Wales (and in N.Ireland I believe) Sovereignty is vested in ‘Crown in Parliament’, but in Scotland it is (in constitutional terms) lent to parliament by the people. That makes no difference at all to the practicality of usage in the same way as if you have money in your pocket you can spend it where you like; where the money came from is neither here not there.
True colours…I favour Full Fiscal Autonomy as a logical development and consequence of devolution. FFA is what most Scottish people want or would be content with. I see it as democratically desirable, as a matter of common-sense practicality and a means of achieving security for the Union. I don’t think that’s a secret and should be pretty clear from posts I’ve made on this site.
I’m not really very clear what you mean by PC bigotry. My point was that there are gnats who think that the Scottish parliament legislation somehow transferred the root of sovereignty from Westminster to Holyrood; essentially giving Holyrood a ‘crown in Parliament’ status in relation to the exercise of sovereign power. That is absolutely not the case. The decisions of the Holyrood parliament can be overturned by Westminster just as much as any devolved legislature.
Leon Wolfeson
I only favour FFA under a federal structure.
And that’d be your use of “gnats”.
uglyfatbloke
I have no problem at all with a federal structure.
They ‘re gnats by nature….noisy and irritating.