Editing 1979 Scottish devolution referendum (section)

==Background==
{{PoliticsScotland}} {{UK Referendums}}

===Kilbrandon Commission===
Following the [[Scottish National Party]] gaining its first peacetime MP in the [[1967 Hamilton by-election]] and [[Plaid Cymru]]'s first win at the [[1966 Carmarthen by-election]] in Wales, the United Kingdom government set up the [[Royal Commission on the Constitution (United Kingdom)|Royal Commission on the Constitution]], referred to as the ''Kilbrandon Commission'', in 1969. The [[royal commission]] was intended to look at the [[Constitution of the United Kingdom|constitutional structure of the United Kingdom]] and consider changes that should be made. The final report was published in 1973.

The commission examined various models of [[devolution]], [[federalism]] and [[confederation|confederalism]], on top of the break-up of the UK into separate [[sovereign state]]s.

In relation to Scotland, eight of the commission's members supported a [[Scottish Assembly]], via a devolved structure. It would recommended that the assembly would have around 100 members, elected under [[single transferable vote]] from multi-member constituencies. The assembly would obtain powers in the areas of education, environment, health, home affairs, legal matters and social services, while agriculture, fisheries and food would be divided between the assembly and the UK government.

===Previous Legislation===
After returning to power with a minority government in [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974 election]], [[Harold Wilson]]'s Labour government published a [[white paper]] entitled ''Democracy and Devolution: Proposals for Scotland and Wales'', published in September 1974. The party gained a narrow majority of three seats in the [[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|election in October]].

By 1976, the Labour government, now led by [[James Callaghan]], had lost its parliamentary majority entirely following a series of adverse [[by-election]] results. To provide a stable majority in the House of Commons, the government made an agreement with the [[Scottish National Party]] and [[Plaid Cymru]] whereby, in return for their support in Commons votes, the government would instigate legislation to devolve political powers from Westminster to Scotland and Wales.<ref name="bbc79ref">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/devolution/scotland/briefing/79referendums.shtml|title=Scottish Referendums|website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref>

The ''Scotland and Wales Bill'' was subsequently introduced in November 1976, but the government struggled to get the legislation through parliament. The Conservative opposition opposed its second reading, and on the first day of [[Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom#Committee stage|committee]] 350 amendments were put down. Progress slowed to a crawl. In February 1977, the Bill's cabinet sponsor [[Michael Foot]] tabled a [[Cloture|guillotine motion]] to attempt to halt the delays. The motion was rejected and the government was forced to withdraw the Bill.<ref name="bbc79ref" />