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 were unhappy about the prospect, however. English overseas possessions made England very wealthy in comparison to Scotland, a poor country with few roads, very little industry and almost no Navy. This made some view unification as a markedly unequal relationship. In Scotland, some claimed that union would enable Scotland to recover from the financial disaster wrought by the Darien scheme through English assistance and the lifting of measures put in place through the Alien Act to force the Scottish Parliament into compliance with the Act of Settlement. The combined votes of the Court party with a majority of the Squadrone