Act of Union

• Act of Union - Background

  • numerous attempts at union had been proposed during the 1600s - scotland was especially keen on a 'federal' approach, where they would not be subordinate to Westminster, all these attempts had failed
  • william (III) of orange needed more money to fund his army; taxes were raised on trade (rather than land) and scotland at the time was a significant trading power but not subject to england taxes - the scots therefore seemed like a helpful and ready reservoir of money as well as manpower for the army
• Acts of Union - Background 2

  • there was also continued concern over accession to the crown and potential scottish claims
  • in the end, the scots negotiated a union, bit it was long long before their negotiations seemed rather inept - minimal english investment and much higher taxes in scotland, and far fewer peers and MPs than even cornwall
• Act of Union - Scottish Powers

  • scotland kept its own church, legal system and local government
  • scotland's coinage, tax, trade, parliament and flag became one with England
  • some of these powers have now been devolved back to scotland
• Act of Union - 20th Century

  • by the 1970s there was political support for devolution to a scottish assembly a referendum was held in 1978m but the 'winning threshold' was not met
  • another referendum was held in 1997, this time resulting in a vote for devolution to a scottish parliament
• Act of Settlement - Back to Independence

  • scotland held a referendum on independence in 2014, which narrowly resulted in a vote to remain part off the UK - this led to further powers being devolved to scotland ('devo-max')
  • this issue is back on the table as a result of the brexit referendum, when scotland voted remain compared to the UK overall leave vote