If Scotland Vote For Independence Should They Be Banned From Voting In The 2015 Election?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2595963/Will-Cameron-resign-Scottish-independence-Pressure-PM-Tories-demand-Scots-banned-general-election.html

[dannyk13]

In a word yes.

[jno]

nope, as long as they are part of the UK they vote in the UK.

[jno]

the grumbling Tories might rememebr that if Scotland does secede, the Tories will rule England and Wales for years.

[mushroom25]

if Scotland vote for independence, a Westminster vote will be something of an irrelevance for them. far more important, i'd have thought, to decide amongst themselves what independence should look like. It cannot be assumed that the Scottish parliament will automatically assume the governmental role, nor indeed that alex salmond would necessarily win any vote to establish leadership of that government.

[jeffa]

jno, independence would have relatively little impact on the arithmetic at Westminster. Since 1945 there have only been two elections (1964 and the first of 1974) where the largest party would have been different if Scotland had been independent. Those two governments sat for a total of 26 months.

[jim360]

I think the answer ought to be no, since a vote for independence doesn't guarantee that the transition will happen quickly or smoothly and so the Scots will still need a voice at Westminster for as long as it takes to complete the negotiations, although perhaps with some level of restricted voting rights.

[naomi24]

While they're part of the UK they're entitled to vote in UK elections.

[ToraToraTora]

jeffa, it would have made a difference in 2010.

It would have a huge effect, 59 seats taken out of the equation none tory.

Yes if they vote for independence then none of ths Scottich constituencies should be voted on. More to the point even if they do vote will those constituencies simply be dissolved at westminster later when actual indpependence starts? That's another reason to ban them voting.

[jeffa]

"It would have a huge effect, 59 seats taken out of the equation none Tory."

One Tory, in fact, and you have to remember to remove the 59 Scottish constituencies from the 650 which comprise Westminster currently.

What I wrote was "Since 1945 there have only been two elections (1964 and the first of 1974) where the largest party would have been different if Scotland had been independent."

Below are the constituency results from the 2010 election, with those in Scotland in parentheses.

CON 307(1)
LAB 258(41)
LIB 57(11)
DUP 8(0)
SNP 6(6)
Others 14(0)
Total 650(59)

The party with the greatest number of seats would still have been the Conservatives. OK?

[ToraToraTora]

Yes the largest party is the same but in 2010, it would have been a clear majority rather than a coalition. The Libdems did a deal with the Torys but they could equally well have done one with Labour. Without the Scottish Seats it would pretty well always be a Tory majority