It should be noted that these elections are not quite as significant in some parts of the
UK, as since the last
General Election, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have gained their own
devolved governments.
These seperate assemblies have power over some, but not all issues affecting daily life.
The Scottish Parliament sitting in Edinburgh, the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, and Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, all formed since the last general election in 1997, have jurisdiction over issues such as the Health Service, education, agriculture and transport in their respective nations. Additionally, Scotland's law is decided by its own parliament.
This means that MPs for constituencies outside England do not have as many issues on which to lobby - mainly defence, foreign policy and the budget - which includes the important issues of pensions and benefits.
Its thought that, because of the reduced roles of Westminster MPs in the devolved nations, interest in the elections will be low, thus leading to a low turnout.
June 6, 2001:
The Oolong Man /msg'ed me to say that the low turnout is probably more to do with
apathy than MPs outside England having less relevance. I agree, there's probably some of that too..
A selection of further reading and up to the minute news sites:
- BBC Vote 2001 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/
Text, audio and video news, and live results service. And play with Peter Snow's virtual swing-o-meter!
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election2001/
Comprehensive news and daily email updates
- Yahoo! UK Election Centre - http://uk.news.yahoo.com/election2001/
News feeds from a variety of sources