Update to my earlier posts about the Independence Referendum:
- Will the referendum be a consultative exercise, under the Holyrood Governement, or a binding one under Westminster?
- When should the referendum be?
- Who should administer it?
- What should the question be?
- Should there be more than one question?
- Should the franchise be extended to 16 and 17 year olds?
The scoreboard so far:
Westminster has said it will give powers to Holyrood to hold the referendum: 1-0 to Holyrood.
The referendum will be in August, 2014. This was given away by Westminster a couple of weeks ago, and Westminster can't go back on that: 2-0 to Holyrood
Who should administer the referendum? The Scottish Government signalled that they would allow Westminster's preference, the electoral commission to do that: 2-1
I'd give the story so far to Holyrood, since the electoral commision issue wasn't key, and timing and legitimacy are.
Undecided issues:
What should the question be? Up for discussion. It will either be "Do you agree that Scotland should be an Independent Nation?", or "Do you agree that Scotland should remain part of the United Kingdom?" The fight is to make sure that your preferred answer is the one that says "Yes".
Should there be more than one question? This is the Scottish Government's bargaining counter. They don't want an extra question anymore than Westminster does, but if it's ruled out by the UK Government, that won't be well regarded by the 60% or so who favour extended powers to a devolved Scotland. I see that offers to buy them off with guaranteed extra powers have been floated by the LDs, but that's a bit of a dodgy move, given 1) English voters have been whipped into believing a devolved Scotland has too many powers already, and 2) I wouldn't trust the LDs to deliver milk. My prediction? One question ballot.
Which leaves the question of extending the ballot. This is an interesting one. The LDs and Labour are both on record as supporting it, so much wiggling will be required if they are to oppose it here. It's a handy way of exposing the LDs and Labour as being willing to put power before principle here. I can't honestly call this one, but my hunch would be no extension, since filibustering about it might make it impossible to implement in time.
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timeasmymeasure
Update to my earlier posts about the Independence Referendum:
The scoreboard so far:
Westminster has said it will give powers to Holyrood to hold the referendum: 1-0 to Holyrood.
The referendum will be in August, 2014. This was given away by Westminster a couple of weeks ago, and Westminster can't go back on that: 2-0 to Holyrood
Who should administer the referendum? The Scottish Government signalled that they would allow Westminster's preference, the electoral commission to do that: 2-1
I'd give the story so far to Holyrood, since the electoral commision issue wasn't key, and timing and legitimacy are.
Undecided issues:
What should the question be? Up for discussion. It will either be "Do you agree that Scotland should be an Independent Nation?", or "Do you agree that Scotland should remain part of the United Kingdom?" The fight is to make sure that your preferred answer is the one that says "Yes".
Should there be more than one question? This is the Scottish Government's bargaining counter. They don't want an extra question anymore than Westminster does, but if it's ruled out by the UK Government, that won't be well regarded by the 60% or so who favour extended powers to a devolved Scotland. I see that offers to buy them off with guaranteed extra powers have been floated by the LDs, but that's a bit of a dodgy move, given 1) English voters have been whipped into believing a devolved Scotland has too many powers already, and 2) I wouldn't trust the LDs to deliver milk. My prediction? One question ballot.
Which leaves the question of extending the ballot. This is an interesting one. The LDs and Labour are both on record as supporting it, so much wiggling will be required if they are to oppose it here. It's a handy way of exposing the LDs and Labour as being willing to put power before principle here. I can't honestly call this one, but my hunch would be no extension, since filibustering about it might make it impossible to implement in time.