ABSTRACT
Referendums on matters of national importance are rare in the United Kingdom. All of those that have been held so far are listed in Table 6.1. During the 1970s there were only three significant examples. 1 The first (and so far only) UK-wide referendum, on membership of the European Community (as it was then known), was held in 1975 and this was followed in 1979 by referendums in Scotland and Wales on devolution proposals made by the government. Thereafter, with the Conservatives in office from 1979 to 1997, the use of referendums was avoided. After the election of a Labour government in 1997, however, referendums began to be used again. During the first twelve months of the new Parliament there were four significant sub-national referendums – on a devolved Parliament for Scotland, a representative Assembly for Wales, the Good Friday Agreement (also involving devolution) in Northern Ireland and the government of London. Future referendums on the electoral system to be used for the Westminster Parliament, membership of the European single currency, and devolution to the English regions are also promised.
