Conservative government constitutional reforms Flashcards
Why was Camerons conservative victory important ?
Cameron’s success was the first general election victory since 1992
What measures did the government introduce and can you give an example of this through the Scottish plans ?
Although no longer governing in coalition with Lib Dems, the Conservatives introduced a number of measures that impact on the constitution (some in response to political circumstances)
For example → In 2014 Dauid Cameron promised extensive new powers to the ScottIsh Parliament and Government if the rejected Independence
These were consequently introduced in the Scotland Act 2016
Motivations behind further devolution reforms ?
Devolution in the UK is unbalanced- Scotland has more powers than northern Ireland and wales (eg, Scottish has a parliament and Ireland and wales has assemblies). and over they years they have tried to rebalance this power
Give an example of extended devolution reforms Scotland
Scotland Act 2016
When scotland had a vote to decide their independence, cameron realised that the polls were becoming very close
Cameron, Clegg and Milliband then published a vow which states that if they stay in the UK they will give them more powers if they reject calls for independence, such as
Extended devolution, give them permanent devolution (means the national parliament could’t take them away however parliament is still sovereignty)
Also gave them the power to set different income taxes and adapt VAT
Overall- This increased the power of the scottish parliament even further
Give an example of the extended devolution reforms to Wales
Wales Act 2017
Increases the political power that Wales hold
Can now name themselves a parliament and hold powers over public services
Who’s idea was it to more extensively introduce city devolution ?
George osbournes idea (david cameron’s chancellor)- favoured decentralising power to local governments
The idea to take the concept of regional devolution and apply it to the big cities
What did the City Devolution Reforms create ?
Created more city Mayors (without referendums) and business and health budgets
Explain city devolution in terms of new city mayors
Created more city Mayors (without referendums)
Created mayors in West midlands and manchester (Andy Burnham)
The powers of these new ‘metropolitan mayors’ are extensive, covering areas such as housing, welfare and transport- ‘northern powerhouse idea’
Greater Manchester’s elected mayor, for example, is responsible for a £6 billion social care and health budget
Explain city devolution in terms of business rates and health budgets
Business rates and health budgets
Now starting to experiment in giving cities more power to spend the taxes raised by business rates
In Manchester - now experimenting in letting them choose what is does with its own health budget
Why and when was EVEL developed ?
2015
Was developed after the West Lothian question
What is the West Lothian question ?
The question of why scotland, wales and northern ireland are able to vote on english issues however english MP’s aren’t allowed to vote on scottish issues
There is no English parliament. Inside of westminster you have a make up of welsh, scottish and english MP’s
This means that scottish MP’s vote on english issues however english MP’s don;’t have any influence over the scottish parliament
What did the components of the EVEL act include ?
Scottish MP’s votes on decisions that only affect england do not count
Only english MP’s can vote on english issues in the house of commons
Describe the process of leaving the EU
By being in the EU, we pulled our sovereignty by complying to EU rules
This started off by a referendum on 2016 and leave won
Article 50 was then triggered by Teresa May which meant the process of leaving the EU had officially began
The Great Repeal Bill - when you take all the EU laws and put them into english laws (big constitutional change)
However it’s now not clear how we will leave the EU (deal or no deal)
The backstop
Ireland and northern ireland are physically attracted
