Tag: SNP
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Catriona Mullay: A Fresh Start, the Old Tradition: Sovereignty and the Scottish Constitutional Imaginary
Recently, the Scottish Government published A Fresh Start with Independence, restating the case for autonomy and outlining aspects of the prospective Scottish state. Despite the narrative of renewal, however, the sections on the Scottish constitution are firmly in the vein of what has been seen before. This blog post explores some of the issues raised…
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Stephen Tierney: The Scottish Parliamentary Elections and the “Second Referendum” Debate
The Scottish National Party emerged as the largest party in the Scottish parliamentary elections held on 6 May. It fell short of an overall majority but still won an impressive 64 of 129 seats. Nicola Sturgeon, who will be reappointed as First Minister within the new devolved administration, has reiterated the SNP’s quest for independence,…
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Louise Thompson: Committee Stages and Constitutional Reform in the New Parliament
Editors’ note: This post is based upon a conference paper presented at the UKCLA conference ‘Debating the Constitution after the General Election’ held at the University of Manchester on 24 June 2015. After the 2010 General Election the world of Westminster was in something of a constitutional disarray. The first peacetime coalition in over half…
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Chris McCorkindale: Echo Chamber: the 2015 General Election at Holyrood – a word on Sewel
In those heady pre-election days, when polls were king and a hung parliament seemed inevitable (a week, it seems, really is a long time in politics), there was much excited/exasperated (delete as appropriate) talk of a ‘progressive alliance’ of SNP, Green and Plaid Cymru MPs joining forces to support or to form a government with…
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Stephen Tierney: Can the Union Survive the Election?
Thursday’s election leaves the Anglo-Scottish Union on the brink. A combination of the first past the post system and the crystallisation of increasingly sharp attitudinal differences between England and Scotland has produced starkly divergent political systems which are now set to clash in the House of Commons. A revitalised Conservative Party will form a government…
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Manifesto Watch: Aileen McHarg: The Constitutional Implications of the Rise of the SNP
Editors’ note: The blog has asked constitutional lawyers to review the main party manifestos ahead of the May elections, drawing out key constitutional proposals. You can read the other contributions in this series here. The phenomenal rise of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the wake of last year’s independence referendum has been the story…