This Petition is in response to the Scottish Government's recently published Referendums Scotland Bill - which is described as "A Bill for an Act of the Scottish Parliament to make provision for the holding of referendums throughout Scotland; to make provision about such referendums and other referendums held under Acts of the Scottish Parliament".
The 2014 Scottish separation referendum result had a clear majority of 10%, but despite promises by the SNP that this was a "once in a generation" vote, the SNP, the Green party and their supporters have not accepted this and continue to campaign for another referendum.
The ongoing uncertainty, debate and division is harmful to Scotland as it distracts politicians and civil servants from concentrating on immediate and pressing problems which they already have the power and responsibility to tackle.
A two thirds vote in favour of change would be clear, demand acceptance by all, and neutralise subsequent efforts to revoke the result or have another referendum.
It would also give a powerful mandate to the governing party responsible for implementing the change.
In the case of a referendum on Scotland’s separation from the UK, the change would mean negotiating a treaty of separation and subsequent agreements on trade, co-operation, assets, defence and transfer of powers. The narrow Brexit vote and ongoing difficulty of a British Government to negotiate and implement a settlement is an example of the problems resulting from deciding an issue on anything less than a substantial majority that gives a widely accepted mandate.
Referendums are an accepted way to resolve major constitutional issues but recent experience (and that of Quebec in 1980 and 1995) shows that low thresholds produce indecisive, contested results and that a high threshold is required. Very few people questioned the 75%/25% result of the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum, for example.
It is also worth pointing out that the SNP’s own rules requires a majority of 66% in order to approve a change to their constitution stating: “This constitution may not be changed except by vote of at least two thirds of the delegates voting at the National Conference”.