There
have been 3 nationwide referendums:
- 1975 – continued membership in the ECC?
- 2011 – should we change the voting system to AV from FPTP?
- 2016 – should we remain in the EU?
Local
Referendums:
- Establishing directly elected mayors – can be triggered by central governments
- Congestion charges – Edinburgh in 2005 and Manchester in 2008, in both cases some ¾ of voters said no.
- Council tax increases – when the local authority proposes to increase the council tax above the threshold set by the government a referendum must be held to approve it. In Bedfordshire, this was rejected in 2015.
- Neighbourhood plans – The localism act 2011 requires local authorities to hold referendums on neighbourhood plans for housing developments.
- Parish polls – the local government act 1972 allows voters to request that a parish council hold a referendum on a local issue. Regulations were tightened after criticism that the system was being used to hold votes on issues that were not local matters.
National
Referendums:
- Constitutional Change: The Blair government holds referendums to approve their proposals for constitutional change, particularly devolution.
- Coalition agreement: Such as the one in 2011 on replacing FPTP with AV, was a central feature of the 2010 coalition, also included commitments to referendums on Welsh devolution.
- Party management: By calling the 1975 and the 2016 EEC/EU referendums. Harold Wilson and David Cameron hoped to resolve long-running internal party divisions on the issue on European integration. Neither was successful.
- Political Pressure: The momentum for a Scottish independence referendum became unstoppable after SNP rose in 2011. The rise of UKIP and the media led Cameron to call the EU vote. However, governments are likely to call a referendum which they are going to lose.
Referendum
Regulations:
- Wording: The commission comments on the intelligibility of the proposed referendum questions. The governments are not required to accept these recommendations but tend to do so.
- Campaign Participation: Groups individuals who expect to spend than £10,000 on referendum campaigning must register as participants with the electoral commission. Designates the lead organisations for each side of the campaign. These organisations have a higher spending limit, receive public money and are entitled to television broadcasts.
- Campaign Spending: The commission ensures that organisations and individuals ashore tot eh limit on funding on spending.
- Conduct of the Campaign: After the referendum, the commission issues a report on administration and spending. Its report on the 2016 EU referendum questioned the rules regarding spending by the UK government.
Parliamentary
Sovereignty:
- States that Parliament is the highest legal authority and can make laws on any matters of its choosing.
- Citizens elect representatives on their behalf to make decisions
- Referendum mark a shift towards popular sovereignty in which people rather than Parliament make the final decision
- Most UK referendums are not legally binding and Parliament retains the authority to respond as it sees fit.
- Legislation means the government would have been required to choose the electoral system if the yes vote was voted in 2011
- Claims of legitimacy was evident after 2016 and it was followed by a debate on whether and how the government should invoke article 50
- Some people prioritise Parliamentary Sovereignty arguing that the referendum had not authorised the terms of Brexit and that Parliament must be asked to give its consent for the country to leave the EU.
- By by-passing the result, the legitimacy of the government and political system.
Constitutional
Convention: Since the 1997 devolution, it has become a constitutional
convention that further changes to the devolved settles would approve
in a referendums.