UK Stuff Flashcards
5 reserved powers are…
- defence
- money (British Pound)
- time (as in clock)
- safety (eg. speed limits)
- employment
5 devolved powers are…
- police service
- health (NHS)
- transport
- justice
- education
129 MSPs
73 each representing a separate constituency (Aberdeenshire West is ours)
Our constituency MSP is Dennis Robertson (SNP)
56 representing regions, 7 per one of the 8 regions (our region is Grampian)
MSP Parliamentary work involves…
Debating
A chance for MSPs to exxpress the views of their constituency
Example:
if there are plans to reduce number of NHS nurses this could directly affect consituencies with hospitals eg. Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
MSP Parliamentary work involves…
Voting
Voting on new laws and bills
Example:
voting on lowering voting age to 16
MSP Parliamentary work involves…
Committees
There are specific committees for differnet things. An MSP can become a member of a committee to target a specific issue.
Example:
Dennis Robertson is a member of the committee which covers oil and gas as it is a big source of work for constituents in Aberdeenshire West.
MSP Parliamentary work involves…
General Question Time
MSPs get to question the government directly. At First Minister’s Question Time (FMQT) an MSP could challenge the first minister about government decisions too.
MSP Parliamentary work involves…
Member’s Bills
MSPs can submit their own bills.
Example:
Margo MacDonald submitted her own Assisted Suicide Bill but it did not get passed.
MSP Constituency work involves…
Surgeries
An MSP can arrange a time a time and place for constituents to come in and express the concerns and ideas.
MSP Constituency work involves…
Attending Meetings
They will attend meetings with local businesses and charities to address their concerns.
MSP Constituency work involves…
Local Media
They will appear in local media to maintain recognised and a good profile in their region or constituency. They could also bring issues into awareness with media.
MSP Constituency work involves…
Visits and social events
To maintain a good profile they will also attend lots of local events like shows and fairs.
MSP Constituency work involves…
Constituents letters and emails
They will spend a lot of time answering and replying concerns of constituents sent to them. It is increasingly common they will do this via social media too.
There are how many committees?
15
How many council areas are there in Scotland?
32
Councils look after our area. They use our council tax to pay for many good things such as:
- Schools
- Pools
- Libraries
- Transport
- Road maintenance
- Social care
- Waste collection
Councils are split into areas called…
wards
Our
Council is…
Ward is…
Councillors are…
Aberdeenshire Council
Upper Deeside and Donside
- Peter Argyle (Lib Dem)
- Geva Blackett (SNP)
- Catriona Farquhar (Conservative)
Councills are just like mini governments.
They hold surgeries.
They have their own committees just like government committees only Councillors attend isntead of MPs and MSPs.
Election Turnouts
Scottish turnout in UK elections…
Scottish elections…
1999 - 58%, 2011 - 50%
1997 - 73%, 2010 - 64%
5 reasons people don’t take part in democracy / voting:
- Voter apathy
- Age, don’t connect with political parites who are generally older
- voting doens’t count for much, you only do it every 4-5 years
- lack of understanding, not very well educated in democracy
- not feeling well represented by the political parties
Apathy due to disillusionment
People may not vote because they don’t feel the parties stick to their word.
2 examples of when parties have disillusioned voters are:
2009 MPs expense scandals
2010 Lib Dems promised to oppose student fee rise but ended up supporting it having won the votes of the majority of 18-24 YOs
Age is a particular problem in voter apathy.
Voter age turnouts in 2010:
18-25 YOs - 44%
65+ - 76%
Many women feel alienated to politics due to it’s dominantly male environment.
In general elections between 1992 and 2010 female voters fell by…
18%
1992 - 78%, 2010 - 64%
Scottish Parliament was set up to encourage female participation.
A few ways it does this are by…
- following normal 9-5 working hours
- following school holidays
- more constituency time
- creches at parliament
All these are designed to make family life easier to balance with work.
The Scottish Parliaments family friendly design does work.
After the 2011 Scottish election there were…
35% women MSPs compared to 22% women MPs
