Scotland: Referendum

Lord Cormack Excerpts

Monday 15th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, I very much welcome what the noble Lord said in his closing remarks. He is right to say that all of us, across the political divide, should work together to get a result whereby Scotland feels part of the United Kingdom and wants to continue in what has been one of the most successful, if not the most successful, partnership that the world has ever seen.

The noble Lord asked a variety of detailed questions and I shall try to answer them. He started by saying that this was an historic day. It is; it is the most extraordinarily historic day and one that I never wished to see. I, for one, never thought that the Scottish nationalists would be able to achieve the majority that they did under the electoral system used for the Scottish Parliament, but in May 2011 the SNP won an outright majority; it won 69 of the 129 seats and part of its commitment was that there should be a referendum, even though it knew that it did not have the legislative ability to achieve that.

The noble Lord asked about the franchise. I expect that we will come back to that in the course of this debate. The first and most important thing to say is that the franchise is up to the Scottish Parliament to decide; it is not up to this House to decide.

[Lord Cormack]

No!

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

No!

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, I join with the noble Lord in saying that we have come to the right conclusion that there should be only one question. The most important thing in this debate is that we have absolute clarity of result and the only way of doing that is by having a single question with a yes/no answer.

I very much welcome what the noble Lord has said about the Electoral Commission. It is true, as he knows very well, that there was a problem in 2007 and I am sure that the Electoral Commission has learnt many lessons as a result of it. However, his main point was that Ministers should pay close attention to the workings of the Electoral Commission to make sure that this does not happen in this all-important referendum, and on that I completely agree with him.

[Lord Cormack]

My Lords, unless and until any constituent country in the United Kingdom becomes independent, it should surely be bound by the rules of the franchise which apply in the United Kingdom. Does my noble friend not accept that it is wrong to alter the franchise by the back door? That will be the consequence of our kow-towing—that is what it is—to the demands of the First Minister of Scotland. Can we please have the opportunity at the very least to see this draft Bill before we approve the order? If we do not, some of us may not feel inclined to approve it.

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, I cannot give my noble friend the comfort that he wants. There is nothing that we can do to oblige the Scottish Parliament to publish a draft Bill, and this very much depends on the process of the passage of that Bill in the Scottish Parliament.

On the second point on the franchise, such voting already takes place in Scotland. The Scottish Parliament decided that 16 and 17 year-olds who turned 18 during the lifetime of the register would be able to vote in the health board elections. It may be a small example but it is an example of where devolution on the franchise has already taken place. I reiterate that I am not in favour of a change in the franchise but it will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament to decide.