Referendums. Since the electorate is asked to vote directly on an issue, holding a referendum is a way of performing direct democracy within a system of representative democracy.

One way of finding out whether voters support a particular policy being thought about by the government is to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a single question on that policy. A vote on a single issue like this is known as a referendum.

Since the electorate is asked to vote directly on an issue, holding a referendum is a way of performing direct democracy within a system of representative democracy.

Britain’s first national referendum was over British membership of the European Common Market (Europe).

Referendums for Ireland

Since the very first referendum, they have been used twice in Ireland to try and solve different problems:

The Northern Ireland electorate voted to remain in the UK when the Storment Parliament (Northern Ireland Parliament). There was a majority vote of 98.9%.

A referendum was also used to see the Irish peoples view on the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (Where the Catholics and the Protestants agree to stop their fighting).

Referendums for Europe

As stated above Britain’s first and only ever national referendum was around the issue of Europe.

The referendum came in 1975. Britain were already a member of the ‘Common Market’ (or in other words was a part of Europe), and the question that was asked was simply:

"Do you think the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (Common Market)?"

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Referendums for Europe

As stated above Britain’s first and only ever national referendum was around the issue of Europe.

The referendum came in 1975. Britain were already a member of the ‘Common Market’ (or in other words was a part of Europe), and the question that was asked was simply:

"Do you think the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (Common Market)?"

This issue brought together different parties, campaigning for the same answer. The Liberal Leader – Wilson was found campaigning along with the Conservative leaders and the CBI for a vote of “Yes”. Whereas right wing members of the Conservatives, i.e. Enoch Powell, and the Labour party, i.e. Michael Foot, camaigned for a vote of “No”.

The Debate Over The Euro

The Labour government of today is expected to hold a referendum to see if the electorate approves the British use of Europe’s single currency.

Yet, the time of this referendum will be chosen carefully, Tony Blair (Prime minister) will only hold the Euro based referendum when he feels that the view of his party is likely to win in the vote.

The Euro is now a major issue in British politics and different parties have taken different sides on the argument. For example the Labour Party campaign that Britain should enter the single currency, whereas the Conservative party have clearly said through their leader Iain Duncan Smith that they are completely against the idea of entry into the Euro.

Welsh and Scottish devolution

There have been several referendums recently to decide whether or not Wales and Scotland should have their own parliaments.

In September 1997 Wales had a vote on whether or not Wales should have its own assembly without tax-varying powers. Even though there was only a turnout of 50%, this vote ended up with a 50.3% majority vote for a Welsh Assembly. Therefore a Welsh national assembly was created in Cardiff.

The votes were divided thusly:

Number of votes for a Welsh Assembly: 559,419 (50.3%)

Number of votes against a Welsh Assembly: 552,698 (49.7%)

This vote was extremely close and a larger turnout could have meant a different result.

Also, in September 1997 Scotland had a vote on whether or not Scotland should have an independent Scottish Parliament and whether or not this parliament should have tax-varying control.

The Scottish Ballot Paper can be seen below:

The results of this referendum were split thusly:

Number of Votes for a Scottish Parliament: 1,775,045 (74.3%)

Number of Votes against a Scottish Parliament: 614,400 (25.7%)

Number of Votes for a tax varying Scottish Parliament: 1,512,889 (63.5%)

Number of Votes for a tax varying Scottish Parliament: 870,263 (36.5%)