The reality here is the necessity of placing everything within the correct time-frame.
What one may have wished for often fails to materialise with the passage of time,
as points are made and things are clarified.
Okay, 8th of January 2012
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/t ... -1-2043354.....But the First Minister’s spokesman said: “It is the height of absurdity that unelected peers in the House of Lords should try to lay down the law about the democratic referendum we will have in Scotland. Labour had their chance to govern Scotland – and were comprehensively rejected in May 2011.
“The more unelected peers interfere and front up the No campaign, the worse it will get for anti-independence parties.
“The draft referendum bill, published by the Scottish Government in February 2010, follows the precedent of the 1997 devolution referendum: eligibility to vote is based on the franchise for Scottish Parliament elections. This is consistent with the internationally accepted principle that constitutional referendums should have a franchise determined by residency.”
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So lets look at 18th January 2012. Let's see how similar Shona's arguments
are to those of Elaine Murray MSP :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-16607480...................According to the Scotland Act, the electorate for a Scottish Parliament election must be someone who is;
entitled to vote as electors at a local government election in an electoral area falling wholly or partly within the constituency
and is registered on the register of local government electors at an address within the constituency.
For Scots living abroad, the current rules stipulate that if you had been registered to vote in the UK in the previous 15 years you can make an annual declaration allowing you to remain on the electoral register in the constituency where you were last registered while living in the UK.
Once registered, you can vote at any UK parliamentary or European parliament election which occurs while you are on the register.
However, you cannot vote in local government elections or in elections associated with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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15th October 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-19942638............The UK government, which has responsibility over constitutional issues, will grant limited powers to the Scottish Parliament to hold a legal referendum, under a mechanism called Section 30.
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15th October 2012
http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.co. ... -what.html........... Sixthly, and finally, it is worth briefly traipsing back to January 2012, when Michael Moore took to his pins in Westminster, and outlined the terms and conditions which the UK government initially wished to impose on the referendum. So what's changed? Compare and contrast today's draft with January's.
“5A.—(1) Paragraph 1 does not reserve a referendum on the independence of Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom if the following requirements are met.
(2) The date of the poll at the referendum must not be the date of the poll at any other referendum held under provision made by the Parliament.
(3) The date of the poll at the referendum must be no later than ***.
(4) There must be only one ballot paper at the referendum, and the ballot paper must give the voter a choice between only two responses.
(5) The persons entitled to vote in the referendum must be the persons who would be entitled to vote in an election for membership of the Parliament— .........................
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As noted above the UK Gov position in January 2012 was set out immediately above in (5), and this is prior to the negotiations that led to the Edinburgh Agreement in October of that year. If you again examine the text of that Agreement
you will see that the UK's position on the franchise has been steadfast :
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Govern ... dependence
(and I quote)The Referendum Bill introduced by the Scottish Government will create a franchise for the referendum. Both governments agree that all those entitled to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections should be able to vote in the referendum. ............
The Scottish Parliamentary franchise
The Scottish Parliamentary franchise enables British, Irish, qualifying Commonwealth citizens and European Union citizens resident in Scotland to vote.
The only thing that the Scottish Government had to agree to was to go along with Westminsters wishes on this matter, no conceding of points to UK Gov could have meant no agreement, no section 30 order, and potentially limitless challenges through the courts about the legitimacy of the referendum in the first place.