Why does Scotland keep getting governments it doesn’t vote for?

Scotland is a nation with two governments – one at Holyrood in Edinburgh and the other at Westminster in London.

The Scottish Parliament has 129 elected members, and uses a system of proportional representation to best reflect the political views of the Scottish people.

Westminster has 650 elected members and over 800 unelected Lords who make decisions for the whole UK, Scotland included.  Of those elected members, only 59 represent Scotland.

This means that at Westminster, Scotland rarely gets the government it votes for – the vast number of MPs represent England, Wales and Northern Ireland – so Scotland’s voice is drowned out. 

Yet Westminster parties claim we are in a ‘partnership of equals’ – 59 of over 1,450 Westminster Parliamentarians is far from equal.

Scotland hasn’t voted for the Tories since the 1950s, yet has been subject to their policies time and time again as part of the Westminster system. 

To put that in context, the last time Scotland voted for a Tory government only a small proportion of households had phones and no-one had mobile phones.

And even when Scotland has voted for the UK government the end result was that the Tories just came back into power again. 

In an independent Scotland, with an independent Parliament, Scotland would always get the government it votes for.