Devolution, a Curse, a Blessing, or both for Westminster?
At a glance, it seems clear that those in Westminster would find the devolved Parliaments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland at the very least bothersome, and perhaps some would go as far to say they are an impediment to the operations of broader UK democracy. But, how much does Devolution really effect UK Parliament, and what proportion of those effects are positive/negative?
One of the key stones of Devolution is that the regional Parliaments bring politics closer to the communities that feel they lack a voice in Westminster and allows them to make more decisions about issues that closely affect them. So, when that local community feels supported, listened to, and overall, well represented, it means more than likely that their representative in the devolved parliament, or the devolved parliament as a whole, has done a good job. Now, when this is the case, it has a very interesting effect on voting behaviour at the General Election, and therefore an effect on the political make up of Westminster. According to this YouGov polling throughout her premiership https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/45244-nicola-sturgeon-seen-doing-good-job-scots-most-her, Nicola Sturgeon was thought to be doing a good job by most Scots at the time of the 2019 General Election, and consequently, her SNP then gained another 13 seats more than what they got in 2017, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2019/results, showing that good results in devolved parliament have an effect on who sits in Westminster. However, the same also goes for the opposite effect, as the DUP’s declining popularity in Stormont coincided with losing seats at the General Election of 2019. This then can either be a blessing or a curse, it entirely depends on the party you’re rooting for.
at a wedding while on a visit to Rutherglen to offer support during a by-election.
Devolved Parliaments also have an effect on Westminster through their influence on legislation passed and not passed through there. For example, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are all given a lot of power to legislate for themselves the education systems of their respective countries, with little input from England and its MPs. Whereas due to England’s lack of devolved government, decisions on its children’s education are voted on by all members of parliament, regardless of nationality, meaning that for example, Scottish representatives can dictate education to English students but not vice versa. This is not an advocation for English devolution, just the observation that perhaps some practical alterations could be made to the system so that there is no disparity between voting powers of devolved representatives on education and Westminster representatives. In 2023, the UK Parliament used provisions in the Scotland Act to block a gender recognition bill that got a majority vote in Holyrood, sparking great controversy at the ‘intrusion’ into Scottish politics by Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party.
Once again this had a significant effect on Westminster because of public opinion, with many rushing to support Sunak’s decision while others condemning and losing faith, some because of transphobia, while others thought it was not his place to interfere with Scottish lawmaking. Sunak feeling he must intervene on this issue will have undoubtedly made devolution feel like a curse at this point.
Influence and pressure exerted by dissolved Parliaments can also change the voting behaviour of MPs in the House of Commons. None of the three devolved countries have any direct power when it comes to foreign policy/international relations, but they do effect votes by using various indirect tactics such as taking hard stances, utilising the media and ruling parties telling their Westminster counterparts to grill the government when in the Commons at times like PMQs. Again, Scotland and the SNP are a good example of this, who consistently supported the Israel-Palestine ceasefire bill in Parliament, so applied copious amounts of pressure on the government in any way they could to get them to vote in favour. However, that is all they could do, as the SNP are in charge of Scotland who do not have any foreign policy jurisdiction, and do not have a large enough presence inside the House of Commons to sway the vote dramatically.
Overall, the effects devolution has on the UK Parliament are significant, but also still limited, and undoubtedly the Government of the day will sway between viewing it as a blessing or a curse depending on the context.
Bibliography
BBC NEWS (2019). Results of the 2019 General Election. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2019/results.
BBC News (2017). Results of the 2017 General Election. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2017/results.
Cornock, D. (2023). Alba Party Rishi Sunak billboard rejected as ‘slander’. BBC News. [online] 15 Aug. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66512726
Crerar, P. and Brooks, L. (2023). Rishi Sunak blocks Scotland’s gender recognition legislation. The Guardian. [online] 16 Jan. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/16/rishi-sunak-blocks-scotlands-gender-recognition-legislation#:~:text=Rishi%20Sunak
Sarah (2023). Nicola Sturgeon released without charge, pending further investigation. [online] Nation.Cymru. Available at: https://nation.cymru/news/breaking-news-nicola-sturgeon-arrested-as-part-of-snp-finances-investigation/
Smith, M. (2023). Nicola Sturgeon seen as doing a good job by Scots for most of her tenure as first minister | YouGov. [online] yougov.co.uk. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/45244-nicola-sturgeon-seen-doing-good-job-scots-most-her
Images
Image 1- Getty Images, Jeff J Mitchell
Image 2- Alamy, Colin Fisher
Image 3- Alba Party
This is an interesting take on a well-known issue in British politics. The conversational tone of this blog was a breath of fresh air in comparison to other blogs which tend to favour analytics. If I were to criticise a technical point, the sourcing of the blog is strangely formatted, and thus creates a bad reading experience as the in-blog links distract the reader. Furthermore, while discussing devolution in general, the blog focuses entirely on Scotland’s parliament and relationship with England, ostracising the devolved governments in Wales and Northern Ireland. It seems that the title of the blog does not match the body of text. A better topic to title this blog based on would have been discussing Scotland’s independence movement, or growing tensions between the states of Scotland and England.