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Referendums are occasionally held within the United Kingdom. The Government of the United Kingdom has held twelve referendums, the first in 1973; only two of these covered the whole UK. In addition, there have also been numerous referendums held by local authorities on issues such as Temperance and directly elected mayors. The current Conservative government has promised to hold a referendum on British membership of the European Union by 2017 at the latest. The most recent referendum to be held was the Scottish independence referendum on 18 September 2014. ==Status of referendums== Major referendums have been rare in the UK, and have always been on constitutional issues. Before Tony Blair's Labour government came to power in 1997, only four such referendums had been held. There are two types of referendum that have been held by the UK Government, pre-legislative (held before proposed legislation is passed) and post-legislative (held after legislation is passed). Referendums are not legally binding, so legally the Government can ignore the results; for example, even if the result of a pre-legislative referendum were a majority of ‘No' for a proposed law, Parliament could pass it anyway, because parliament is sovereign. Legally, Parliament at any point in future could reverse legislation approved by referendum because the concept of parliamentary sovereignty means no Parliament can prevent a future Parliament from amending/repealing legislation. However, it is unlikely many governments would attempt to reverse legislation approved by referendum as it would probably be controversial and potentially damaging to its popularity. Finally, under the Local Government Act 1972, there is a little-known provision under which non-binding local referendums on any issue can be called by small groups of voters. This power exists only for parish councils, and not larger authorities, it is commonly known as the "Parish Poll". Six local voters may call a meeting, and if ten voters or a third of the meeting (whichever is smaller) agree, the council must carry out a referendum in 14–25 days. The referendum is merely advisory, but if there is a substantial majority and the results are well-publicised, it may be influential. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Referendums in the United Kingdom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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