THE deal to transfer the legal power to hold a referendum from Westminster to Holyrood comes after months of protracted negotiations and political conflict between the Scottish and UK governments.
The SNP’s landslide election victory last year meant the UK government would at some point have to reach an accord with Alex Salmond about the holding of an independence referendum. With the power to run an official vote reserved to Westminster, it was initially thought Mr Salmond’s proposed one would only be “advisory”.
There was a major shift at the start of 2012, when Mr Salmond announced that the SNP government’s preferred date for the referendum was in late 2014 – the year of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the 700th anniversary of Bannockburn.
The UK government’s most senior Scottish law officer, Advocate General Lord Wallace, said Holyrood had no power to deliver a referendum of any kind – even advisory – and to do so would flout a “fundamental principle of democracy”.
SNP ministers repeatedly insisted they were “entirely confident” the Scottish Government held the powers.
However, after months of talks involving Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Mr Salmond, both sides moved closer, with the SNP ruling out a second question in exchange for control of the date and votes for Scots aged 16 and 17.