Talk:Referendums in the United Kingdom

Problem with Ealing referendum result
There seems to be a small problem with the Ealing result, which currently shows a 65% No vote and a 55% Yes vote. That's 120%! I have taken the figures and done a graph w/ Microsoft Excel and found 55% voted NO and 45% voted YES. I have corrected the article. -- iHoshie 09:18, May 21, 2004 (UTC)

numerical incongruity
The article claims that West Devon had the highest turnout (with 42%) but the table shows that Berwick-upon-Tweed had a higher turnout. Which is right?

Corrected Deus Ex 14:19, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Welsh Sunday opening referendums
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the referendums on whether the pubs should open on Sunday which were a feature of life in parts of Wales every seven years between 1961 and 1996! Anyway, I've fixed the deficiency... -- Arwel (talk) 14:45, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Page title
Referenda is the correct plural for referendum, is it not? The page should be changed. Lenzar 01:41, 10 March 2007 (UTC)


 * No it's referendums. Timrollpickering (talk) 00:52, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Wiktionary and other dictionaries I have checked suggest that either form is acceptable. Unless there is some other compelling reason to justify a name change, the article should remain as it is. Road Wizard (talk) 05:23, 16 June 2008 (UTC)


 * This was brought up a long time ago and not yet resolved in the body of the article. Isn't consistency a good reason. It looks a confused muddle to have referenda (plural) alternating with referendas (plural of a plural, or just wrong?). Referendums seems like good common usage for the title. P0mbal (talk) 22:33, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

Missing section of regional assemblies
Northern England devolution referendums, 2004 and others are missing

--Abz zeus (talk) 11:00, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Add two rows in the table of referendums for directly elected mayors
The table currently omits Salford and Great Yarmouth. See DFH (talk) 10:13, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Strathclyde water referendum
What about the Strathclyde water referendum of 1994? What section should that be included under? GDBarry (talk) 07:03, 15 September 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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Plural of referendum
In this article we have three versions of what appears to be the plural of referendum: referenda, referendas, referendums. Even the title of the page (which seems acceptable common use) differs from the first use. It is irritatingly inconsistent to see this. Can someone explain or correct? Also I have twice corrected referena to referenda - which worries me that it may have been referena for who knows how long and nobody else spotted it.P0mbal (talk) 22:25, 21 June 2016 (UTC)


 * An anonymous IP yesterday made the changes which I've reverted. The fact they changed the name of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 is a sign of a blanket approach which often throws up these messes. Timrollpickering (talk) 07:30, 22 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Thank you P0mbal (talk) 22:53, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

Status of Referendums
The article makes the claim, several times, that referendums are not legally binding (or that they are "advisory) but offers no evidence at all for this position. I believe that in the absence of any specific statement to the contrary, UK referendums are legally binding. Certainly this would be expected with the latest referendum where the Conservative Manifesto stated that it would be, the official government leaflet stated that it was, and the legislation itself certainly indicates, to say the least, that this is so.

Therefore, unless proof of the current statements can be provided, I would suggest that they are either deleted or amended. 86.151.34.217 (talk) 17:59, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

I have since discovered a publication from the Scottish Affairs Committee in relation to the Scottish Referendum I would agree with the statement in Clause 12

″The referendum is not 'consultative' in the sense that separation might or might not follow. All previous referendums in the UK have decided the matter put to the voters, and so will this one.″ 86.151.34.217 (talk) 18:25, 24 August 2016 (UTC)


 * Parliamentary sovereignty means no referendum can bind parliament to act, even if in theory there was some form of clause binding the government to act, so yes referendums in the UK are not legally binding. In practice parliament and the government do act in accordance to the result (evidence pending for the EU referendum), but there is no legal requirement to do so.


 * Local referendums on things like mayors may be legally binding on local authorities, but even then in theory parliament could still legislate to overrule them. QueenCake (talk) 17:27, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

Nouns with Dual Plurals - Referendum / Referenda / Referendums
Referendum is one of a handful of nouns that have dual plurals. Compare: Referendum/Referenda/Referendums with Fish/Fish/Fishes and Penny/Pence/Pennies.

The generic and original plural is referenda -- compare referendum/referenda with medium/media.

Referendums is an alternate plural that can be used in specific circumstances. Compare: One fish - a single fish of one species; two fish - two fish, in generic terms; two fishes - two different species of fish. Thus, it is possible to have five fish but only two fishes; i.e. three fish of one species and two fish of another.

Compare also: One Penny - a single coin with the value of one penny; two pence - a single coin with the value of two pennies; two pennies - two coins, each with the value of one penny.

The term referendum is being used generically in this article, so it should be "referenda" -- except when referring to specific situations, such as legislation, that uses the non-generic plural "referendums."

73.162.218.153 (talk) 21:25, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

European Union Act 2011 mention in lead
I've moved the section on the European Union Act 2011 making provision for referenda (in the event of treaty changes) - I've moved it from the lead to "Planned referendums" (as the result of the 2016 referendum makes it less likely that such a provision would need to be used, but it is still relevant information in the event that the UK has not left the EU at the time of an applicable treaty change). — Sasuke Sarutobi (talk) 12:57, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

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North Tyneside Mayor election missing
There was a referendum in 2016 in North Tyneside on whether or not they should retain having a mayor: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/north-tyneside-keep-mayor-after-11292303. It's a minor one but I think should be included all the same. TheJoff (talk) 23:35, 11 June 2018 (UTC)


 * It's included in England and Wales mayoral referendums. Timrollpickering 23:44, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

2016 European Union Referendum - extra statistic
I notice that the section 2016 European Union membership referendum has an extra statistic "Voting age population and turnout" which should not be compared to other statistics in other sections.

The article thus shows two different turnout statistics 72.21% and 65.38%. I think this is misleading as the second figure is not a recognised turnout figure.

Would anyone object if I edited the second figure to state that "At the time, the UK Voting age population was 51,356,768, of whom 4,856,767 were not registered to vote." without a misleading percentage? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lukew151 (talk • contribs) 12:57, 15 December 2018 (UTC)