The Truth about the 2nd Ref "Mandate"
A Force For Good reminds Nicola Sturgeon that she and her party do not represent the will of the majority of people in Scotland who love the United Kingdom and who want us to stay together, George Street, Edinburgh, 24 Aug 2022.
The Scottish nationalists are nursing their sob story for their Cry and Moan Pity Party on their Big Day of Disappointment on Wednesday 23rd November, when the Supreme Court makes its judgment on whether the SNP/Greens can have another attempt at breaking up Britain.
One of their weeping wails is that "The Scottish Parliament was given a democratic mandate by the electorate of Scotland in 2021 to deliver another referendum."
They build this claim upon the shoogly ground that the SNP/Greens got enough seats to form a coalition administration – 72 (64/8) out of 129.
Apparently it is "undemocratic" not to grant a referendum on the basis of this "mandate".
Let's have a closer look at this quote/unquote "mandate".
Let's put aside the constitutional fact that a devolved arm of the British Parliament cannot act outside of the British Parliament's authority, and cannot deliver a democratic mandate for a referendum to break up the United Kingdom itself. Such a mandate has to be found at the level of the Union Parliament.
Let's put that fact aside, and let's just look at their claim as far as the actual number of people voting for a second referendum is concerned.
FINDING the TOTAL "FOR A SECOND REFERENDUM" VOTE
Let's examine the total "Scottish nationalist vote" at the 6 May 2021 election – the combined vote of which apparently gives them "a mandate" for another referendum.
Remember that each person has two votes at the Holyrood election: one for the Constituency (decided by first-past-the-post) and one for the Region (decided by PR).
The following parties stood on a platform of independence for Scotland, and presumably for a second referendum.
Now, some people will have voted for these parties for reasons other than independence or a second referendum, but let's simplify matters and just imagine that every single person who voted for these parties was voting for a second referendum for breaking up Britain. We're also being generous with this number by including the 3 small parties which did not return any representatives to Holyrood. All figures from: wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Scottish_Parliament_election
CONSTITUENCY TOTALS
SNP: 1,291,204
Green: 34,990
Restore Scotland: 1,192
Scotia Future: 1,032
TOTAL = 1,328,418
REGIONAL TOTALS
SNP: 1,094,374
Green: 220,324
Alba: 44,913
Restore Scotland: 1,149
Scotia Future: 451
TOTAL 1,361,211
Therefore, the total vote for a second referendum in the Constituencies and Regions = 2,689,629.
Since this total represents one person with 2 votes, we divide by 2 to find the number of people voting for parties which advocate independence and a second referendum, and we get:
Total "For a Second Referendum" Vote = 1,344,815
In 2021, the electorate of Scotland was 4,280,785.
That means, only 31.42% of the entire Scottish electorate voted for a second referendum in 2021.
That is not even a third of the electorate!
We're meant to believe that less than a third of the Scottish electorate is some kind of "mandate" for another referendum to break up the UK?
Here's the bottom line.
Less than a third of the Scottish electorate put the SNP and Greens in power in 2021. Don't try to tell us that is any kind of "democratic mandate from the people of Scotland" for a second referendum.
COMPARE this WITH the OVERALL UK ELECTORATE
The latest figures available at the ONS website have an overall UK electorate of 48,844,292 (December 2021 at tinyurl.com/bdzdhskc ).
As a percentage of today's overall UK electorate, that nationalist vote in 2021 represents a mere 2.75% of the entire UK electorate!
Is less than 3% of the entire UK electorate meant to represent a mandate to call its very existence into question once again?
If you believe that is in any way, shape or form democratically acceptable, then we've got a ferry to sell you!
We summarised these points during our "Stay in the UK" Rally outside the Scottish Parliament on 23 Nov 2022 – the day that the Supreme Court ruled that the SNPGreens could not hold a second referendum without Westminster's permission:
// SUPPORT A FORCE FOR GOOD //
