Devolution and Entrenched Household Poverty: Is Scotland Less Mobile?

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Morelli ◽  
Paul Seaman
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
The Other ◽  
National Party ◽  
Total Income ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Household Poverty ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk

The Scottish National Party led Scottish Government has identified household poverty as a key focus for its anti-poverty strategy. The government's ‘Solidarity Target’ seeks to both increase wealth and increase the share of total income gained by the bottom three deciles. The ability to demonstrate the advantages of policy divergence within Scotland, relative to the other parts of the United Kingdom, is central to the government's aim of gaining support for increased powers for the devolved government. This paper seeks to provide evidence on one aspect of the government's anti-poverty strategy: the degree to which Scotland differs from the rest of the UK over levels of entrenched poverty. The paper demonstrates that not only does Scotland have greater entrenched poverty but that the changes in mobility since the 1990s have impacted on Scotland to a lesser degree than the rest of the UK.

scholarly journals Commonwealth Games and Their Impact on Scotland’s Future in or outside the United Kingdom

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Ochman
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
National Party ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
Sport Events ◽  
Commonwealth Games

It is more than probable that the Commonwealth Games in 2014 will be used by the Scottish government as a tool in the battle for independence. For the Scottish National Party (SNP), sport events constitute another opportunity to underline Scottish autonomy. During the last Olympic Games, SNP ministers refused to use the name “Team GB” in their message to the Scottish athletes. Nurturing Scottish pride during the Games has already begun, with the official mascot—the Clyde Thistle, which is Scotland’s national flower and emblem. The mascot of the Commonwealth Games has never waved the patriotic flag as it does now.

After the Scottish Independence Referendum

2019 ◽  
pp. 275-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Tierney
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
National Party ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
Independent Country

This chapter examines the independence referendum in Scotland, held on September 18, 2014, and its implications for the federal direction of the United Kingdom. The referendum saw 55 percent of Scots say “No” to the question: “Should Scotland be an Independent Country?”. Despite this result, the referendum has sparked a further process of decentralization. The chapter first describes the context that led to the Scottish independence referendum, focusing in particular on the success of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the parliamentary elections of May 2011 and why the referendum emerged from—and was organized within—the normal contours of constitutional democracy. It then considers the period of constitutional engagement and the outcome of the referendum before concluding with an analysis of some of the lessons that can be drawn from it with regard to constitutional change and the issue of secession.

New Unions for Old

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil MacCormick
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Joint Attention ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Real Power ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
United Kingdom Government ◽  
The Uk

This chapter recommends a reversion from the 1707 Union of Parliaments to the 1603 Union of Crowns (though not of governments). Its argument is originally submitted to the joint attention of the Royal Society and the British Academy on a date very close to 5 November 2003. James succeeded in preserving peace in the islands during his long reign — long in England itself, longer yet in Scotland. In Westminster as well as Edinburgh and elsewhere, real power has come to be invested in parliaments, and thus in the governments that command parliamentary majorities through the dominance of political parties. The UK system works so long as party ties make more or less unquestioned the loyalty of the head of a devolved Scottish government to the head of the United Kingdom government. Generally, the present contribution is offered primarily as a scholarly, not a political one. It is enough if it has sketched grounds for taking seriously the question what ‘new unions for old’ might mean.

The SNP and ‘Five Continuing Unions’

2020 ◽  
pp. 148-167
Author(s):  
David Torrance
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
National Party ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Authority ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
Head Of State ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk

This chapter flips the book’s analysis and looks at the ‘unionism’ of the Scottish National Party, which after 1942 supported the secession of Scotland from the UK. A speech made by Alex Salmond in 2013 is used as a means of examining different strands of the party’s unionism following its formation in 1934. First was the SNP’s attachment to some form of supra-national authority, initially the British Empire and later the European Union; second was defence co-operation via NATO; third was a form of monetary union as advocated by the Scottish Government during the 2012-14 referendum campaign; fourth was a long-standing SNP commitment to the 1603 Union of the Crowns, or retention of the Queen as head of state in an independent Scotland; and fifth was what Alex Salmond called a ‘social union’ between the ‘peoples of these islands’.

Social Union

2021 ◽  
pp. 153-169
Author(s):  
Michael Keating
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Population Based ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Undeserving Poor

Unionists have defended the United Kingdom as a social or ‘sharing’ union in which resources are distributed according to need. It is true that income support payments and pensions are largely reserved and distributed across the union according to the same criteria. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are net beneficiaries. On the other hand, welfare has been detached from older understandings of social citizenship and ideas of the deserving and undeserving poor (strivers and skivers) have returned. Spending on devolved matters including health, education and social services is not equalized across the union. Instead, the Barnett Formula, based on historic spending levels and population-based adjustments, is used. Contrary to the claims of many unionists, there is no needs assessment underlying it, apart from a safeguard provision for Wales. The claim that the UK is a sharing union thus needs to be qualified.

Chapter I. The Economy in 1979

1980 ◽  
Vol 91 ◽  
pp. 8-26
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
West Germany ◽  
The Other ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Made In

The United Kingdom economy remained almost stagnant in 1979 with GDP being only 0.6 per cent higher than in 1978. Not only is this a dismal end to a generally depressed period of seven years but the outlook for the beginning of the 1980s is even worse, as we discuss in chapter II on the home economy. In comparison with the United States, Japan, West Germany, France and the OECD countries as a whole the UK performance has been slow, as is clear from chart I. However if similar comparisons with the other countries had been made in 1969 or 1959 the UK performance would also have been seen to be relatively slow. This picture of a stagnant aggregate economy in 1979 covers up an underlying picture of considerable fluctuation in the components of the economy.

scholarly journals Deference or Interrogation? Contrasting Models for Reconciling Religion, Gender and Equality

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-35
Author(s):  
Moira Dustin
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
The Other ◽  
Religious Discrimination ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Bisexual And Transgender ◽  
Lgbt People ◽  
The Uk

Since the late 1990s, the extension of the equality framework in the United Kingdom has been accompanied by the recognition of religion within that framework and new measures to address religious discrimination. This development has been contested, with many arguing that religion is substantively different to other discrimination grounds and that increased protection against religious discrimination may undermine equality for other marginalized groups – in particular, women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. This paper considers these concerns from the perspective of minoritized women in the UK. It analyses two theoretical approaches to reconciling religious claims with gender equality – one based on privileging, the other based on challenging religious claims – before considering which, if either, reflects experiences in the UK in recent years and what this means for gender equality.

scholarly journals Multinational states: Constitutional challenges: The case of Scotland

2008 ◽  
Vol 60 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 368-400
Author(s):  
Srdjan Korac
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Party ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
National Movement ◽  
Constitutional Revolution

The author analyses the major changes to the political ideology and policy platform of the stateless nation's movement in Western European postindustrial states, taking the Scottish National Party as an special example. The analysis starts with the evolution of the Anglo-Scottish relations beginning from the creation of Union of English and Scottish kingdoms by the Act of Union in 1707. Author then presents the contemporary relationship between these two provinces of the United Kingdom. He stresses that since 1990s, the Scottish national movement have been pursuing the 'silent constitutional revolution' of this multinational community, which means using the most of globalization, the European integration process, and the so called devolution, to maximize the autonomy of Scotland within the United Kingdom.

The State of Scotland

2020 ◽  
pp. 675-688
Author(s):  
Neal Ascherson
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Distant Future ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Scottish Politics

In the context of Brexit, it is easy to see Scottish government as a model of consistency and stability whilst the UK government displays the opposite. This is a false impression, with Scottish politics dominated by the constitutional question. One view is that Scotland’s constitutional journey can end only with independence; that would be excessively teleological. Devolution has revived distinctive ‘European’ features in Scottish constitutional thinking as political relations between London and Edinburgh grow less consensual. This is incompatible with the archaic English doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, an inconsistency which hardly mattered until devolution. Harder to measure has been the quiet, continuing sundering of ‘Britishness’ in civil society. Independence, in short, remains a serious option. It is which the voters in 2014 chose not to select. But it is probable that they will be offered that choice again, in the not-distant future, in different circumstances. There can be no going back from devolution. But going forward from it could make the United Kingdom unrecognizable and project the old ‘British’ nations—England included—into a more modern and flexible relationship.

UK Brexit is a risky opportunity for the SNP

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Survey ◽  
National Party ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Eu

Significance On September 2, in light of the Scottish electorate's overwhelming vote to remain in the EU, Sturgeon's ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) launched a national survey on whether to hold a second referendum on their flagship policy of independence from the United Kingdom. Impacts Sturgeon's display of post-Brexit leadership will cement her popularity in Scotland, regardless of the independence question. The apparent exhaustion of all other options of retaining EU status could see independence support increase. The failure of a second referendum could put an end to the independence cause for a generation.

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