The United Kingdom is a unitary state with devolution that is governed within the framework of a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Boris Johnson, is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the British government, on behalf of and by the consent of the monarch, and the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as in the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and the Northern Ireland Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The highest court is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
The additional member system (AMS), also known as mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) outside the United Kingdom, is a mixed electoral system with one tier of single-member district representatives, and another tier of "additional members" elected to make the overall election results more proportional.
Scottish independence is the political movement for Scotland to become a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom.
The Scottish referendum of 1979 was a post-legislative referendum to decide whether there was a sufficient support for a Scottish Assembly proposed in the Scotland Act 1978 among the Scottish electorate. This was an act to create a devolved deliberative assembly for Scotland. An amendment to the Act stipulated that it would be repealed if less than 40% of the total electorate voted "Yes" in the referendum. The result was that 51.6% supported the proposal, but with a turnout of 64%, which represented only 32.9% of the registered electorate. The Act was subsequently repealed. A second referendum to create a devolved legislature in Scotland was held in 1997 under a newly elected Labour government, which led to the enactment of the Scotland Act 1998 and the creation of a devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999.
In Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is a Scottish Nationalist, centre left, social democratic political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. The SNP has controlled Scotland's devolved legislature since the 2007 election as a minority government, and were a majority government from the 2011 election and have been a minority government, since the 2016 election. Its current leader, Nicola Sturgeon, is the First Minister of Scotland.
Unionism in Scotland is a political movement which favours the continuation of the political union between Scotland and the other countries of the United Kingdom, and hence is opposed to Scottish independence. Scotland is one of four countries of the United Kingdom which has its own devolved government and Scottish Parliament, as well as representation in the UK Parliament. There are many strands of political Unionism in Scotland, some of which have ties to Unionism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland. The two main political parties in the UK — the Conservatives and Labour — both support Scotland remaining part of the UK.
Glasgow East is a constituency of the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, located in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It elects one Member of Parliament at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting. It is currently represented by David Linden of the Scottish National Party who has been the MP since 2017.
The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system.
Scottish Labour is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From a high of holding 56 of the 129 seats at the first Scottish parliament election in 1999, the Party has declined each election until getting just 22 MSPs elected at the 2021 election. The party currently holds one of 59 Scottish seats in the UK House of Commons.
David George Thompson is a former Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who has been the leader of the Action for Independence party since its foundation in 2020.
The British Left is a range of political parties and movements in the United Kingdom. These can take the position of either centre-left, left-wing or far-left.
There are five types of elections in the United Kingdom: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to devolved parliaments and assemblies, local elections, mayoral elections and Police and Crime Commissioner elections. Within each of those categories, there may also be by-elections. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday. Since the passing of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 for general elections, all five types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to parliament and the devolved assemblies and parliaments can occur in certain situations. The five electoral systems used are: the single member plurality system (first-past-the-post), the multi-member plurality system, the single transferable vote, the additional member system and the supplementary vote.
Britannica was a far-right political party, led by Charles Baillie, the former organiser of the British National Party's Glasgow branch. It was first registered in August 2011.
The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first and, as of 2021, the only general election at the end of a fixed-term Parliament. Local elections took place in most areas on the same day.
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 12 December 2019. It resulted in the Conservative Party receiving a landslide majority of 80 seats. The Conservatives made a net gain of 48 seats and won 43.6% of the popular vote – the highest percentage for any party since 1979.
The United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election was held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results were announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019, after all the other EU countries had voted. This was the United Kingdom's final participation in a European Parliament election before leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020, and was also the last election to be held under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 before its repeal under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.
Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded as the Brexit Party in November 2018, and was renamed on 6 January 2021 after the completion of the UKs withdrawal from the European Union. The party was founded by Nigel Farage and Catherine Blaiklock with the stated purpose of advocating for Brexit. Prior to the UK's withdrawal from the European Union (EU), the party had 23 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Its largest electoral success was winning 29 seats and the largest share of the national vote in the 2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom.
The Northern Independence Party (NIP) is a secessionist and democratic socialist political party that seeks to make Northern England an independent nation, under the name of Northumbria. Founded in October 2020 by Philip Proudfoot, the party currently has no elected representatives at any level of British politics.
