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====Scottish Parliament==== {{Main|Scottish Parliament}} [[File:Edinburgh Scottish Parliament01crop2 2006-04-29.jpg|thumb|250px|The [[Scottish Parliament Building]] in [[Holyrood, Edinburgh|Holyrood]], [[Edinburgh]], seat of the Scottish Parliament.]] The [[Scottish Parliament]] is the national, [[unicameral]] legislature of [[Scotland]], located in the [[Holyrood, Edinburgh|Holyrood]] area of the capital [[Edinburgh]]. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood"<ref name="HolyroodName">{{cite web |url=http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/education/resources/teachingResources/wordBank.htm |title=Scottish Parliament Word Bank|publisher=Scottish Parliament |access-date=14 November 2006}}</ref> (cf. "[[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]]"), is a [[democratically]] elected body comprising 129 members who are known as [[Members of the Scottish Parliament]], or MSPs. Members are elected for four-year terms under the [[mixed-member proportional representation]] system. As a result, 73 MSPs represent individual geographical [[Scottish Parliament constituencies and electoral regions|constituencies]] elected by the [[plurality voting|plurality]] ("first past the post") system, with a further 56 returned from eight [[Additional-member system|additional member]] regions, each electing seven MSPs.<ref name="ConstituencyMSPs">{{cite web |url=http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/index.htm |title=Scottish Parliament MSPs |publisher=Scottish Parliament |access-date=14 November 2006}}</ref> The current Scottish Parliament was established by the [[Scotland Act 1998]] and its first meeting as a [[devolved]] [[legislature]] was on 12 May 1999. The parliament has the power to pass laws and has limited tax-varying capability. Another of its roles is to hold the [[Scottish Government]] to account. The "devolved matters" over which it has responsibility include [[Education in Scotland|education]], [[Health in Scotland|health]], agriculture, and [[Scots law|justice]]. A degree of domestic authority, and all foreign policy, remains with the British Parliament in [[Palace of Westminster|Westminster]]. The public take part in Parliament in a way that is not the case at Westminster through Cross-Party Groups on policy topics which the interested public join and attend meetings of alongside Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). The [[Celtic Revival|resurgence in Celtic language and identity]], as well as 'regional' politics and development, has contributed to forces pulling against the unity of the state.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.manxman.co.im/cleague/ |title=The Celtic League |access-date=20 May 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615050803/http://www.manxman.co.im/cleague/ |archive-date=15 June 2006}}</ref> This was clearly demonstrated when β although some argue it was influenced by general public disillusionment with Labour β the [[Scottish National Party]] (SNP) became the largest party in the Scottish Parliament by one seat. [[Alex Salmond]] (leader of SNP between 2004 and 2014) made history becoming the first [[First Minister of Scotland]] from a party other than Labour following the [[2007 Scottish Parliament election]]. The SNP [[First Salmond government|governed as a minority government]] following this election. [[Scottish nationalism]] which advocates for [[Scottish independence|Scotland regaining its independence]] has experienced a dramatic rise in popularity in recent years, with a pivotal moment coming at the [[2011 Scottish Parliament election]] where the SNP capitalised on the collapse of the Liberal Democrat support to improve on their 2007 performance to win the first ever outright majority at Holyrood (despite the voting system being specifically designed to prevent majorities), with Labour remaining the largest opposition party. [[File:Scottish Parliament Debating Chamber 2.jpg|thumb|left|The debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament.]] This election result prompted the leader of the three main opposition parties to resign. [[Iain Gray]] was succeeded as Scottish Labour leader by [[Johann Lamont]], Scottish Conservative and Unionist leader, [[Annabel Goldie]] was replaced by [[Ruth Davidson]], and [[Tavish Scott]], leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats was replaced by [[Willie Rennie]]. A major SNP manifesto pledge was to hold a [[2014 Scottish independence referendum|referendum on Scottish Independence]], which was duly granted by the British Government and held on 18 September 2014. When the nationalists came to power in 2011, opinion polls placed support for independence at around 31%, but in 2014, 45% voted to leave the union. In the wake of the referendum defeat, membership of the SNP surged to over 100,000, overtaking the Liberal Democrats as the third largest political party in the UK by membership, and in the general election of May 2015 the SNP swept the board and took 56 of the 59 Westminster constituencies in Scotland (far surpassing their previous best of 11 seats in the late 1970s) and winning more than 50% of the Scottish vote. Salmond resigned as first minister and leader of the SNP following the country's rejection of independence in September 2014, and was succeeded in both roles by his [[Deputy First Minister of Scotland|deputy first minister]] and deputy leader of the SNP, [[Nicola Sturgeon]]. Additionally, following the independence referendum, Lamont stood down as Scottish Labour leader and [[Jim Murphy]] was elected to replace her. Murphy remained leader until the general election in 2015 in which he lost his seat in Westminster. After the defeat, he resigned his position MSP [[Kezia Dugdale]] became leader of the party. In 2017, Dugdale unexpectedly resigned and was replaced as Scottish Labour leader by [[Richard Leonard]]. He held the post until resigning in January 2021, with [[Anas Sarwar]] replacing him the following month.
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