Politics of Scotland Politics of Scotland Scotland is a country which is currently in a political union with the rest of the United Kingdom. Having been directly governed by the UK Government Since 1707, a system of devolution was established in 1999, after the Scottish people voted by a firm majority to re-establish a primary law making Scottish Parliament in a referendum held in 1997. Scotland entered into a political union with England in 1707, and since then has sent representatives to the Palace of Westminster, which succeeded the Parliament of England to become the British Parliament. Currently, 59 Members of Parliament (MPs)
Acts of Union 1707 justices of the peace in each shire to carry out administration. In effect it took the day-to-day government of Scotland out of the hands of politicians and into those of the College of Justice. In the year following the Union, the Treason Act 1708 abolished the Scottish law of and extended the corresponding English law across Great Britain. Scotland benefited, says historian G.N. Clark, gaining "freedom of trade with England and the colonies" as well as "a great expansion of markets". The agreement guaranteed the permanent status of the Presbyterian church in Scotland, and the separate system of laws and