User:Globaltraveller/Drafts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Politics of Scotland forms a distinctive part of the wider politics of the United Kingdom. Scotland is a constituent country of the United Kingdom which is a unitary, sovereign state where politics takes place in the framework of constitutional monarchy. Since 1999, a form of home rule, known as devolution, has statutorily transferred powers over a majority of Scotland's domestic affairs from the Parliament of the United Kingdom and UK Government to an elected Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive. In Scotland, the Judiciary is independent of both Parliament and Executive.
There are a number of tiers of government administering Scotland. The United Kingdom Parliament retains active power over Scotland's taxes, social security system, the military, international relations, broadcasting, and some other areas explicitly specified in the Scotland Act 1998 as reserved matters. The Scottish Parliament has legislative competence for all other areas relating to Scotland, and has limited power to vary income tax by up to 3 pence in the pound. The Queen appoints one of the members of the Scottish Parliament, on the nomination of the Parliament, to be First Minister of Scotland. Other Ministers are also appointed by the Queen on the nomination of the Parliament and together with the First Minister they make up the Scottish Executive, which is the executive arm of the Scottish Government. In terms of the European Parliament, Scotland constitutes a single constituency and returns 7 members to represent it there.
For the purposes of local government, 32 council areas were instituted in 1996, by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994</ref> and are administered by unitary authorities responsible for the provision of all local government services, such as roads, street lighting and sewerage.
The main political parties operating in Scotland are the Scottish National Party (SNP), Scottish Labour Party, Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. Elections to the Scottish Parliament and Scottish local authorities take place every four years, starting from 1999. Elections to the United Kingdom Parliament take place every four or five years, with the last election occurring in May 2005.