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A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

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The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

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Merge proposal

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The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
To merge Responsibilities of the Scottish Government into Scottish Government for context, noting also the WP:CONTENTFORK of Devolved, reserved and excepted matters. Klbrain (talk) 20:31, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There's a new article on Responsibilities of the Scottish Government, but its content overlap heavily with content scattered throughout the Scottish Government page, not just in the existing Scottish Government#Responsibilities section. It's therefore redundant and best merged, or simiply redirected, to here on the grounds of overlap. Give the duplication already present, the combined size wouldn't be excessive. Note that an alternative target would be Scotland Act 1998, which defines the responsibilities, but this one is probably better. Klbrain (talk) 12:04, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Opposed: I created the said article on the basis that the text included was far too vast for the Scottish Government article and added undue weight and length. Goodreg3 (talk) 14:00, 26 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Further comment: You added the entire article back into the Scottish Government whilst leaving the responsibilities section active further down the article. By doing so, you did exactly what you claim you are setting out to rectify, and that is you overlapped information already included in the article or summarised in the preexisting responsibilities section. You cannot go ahead and merge an article without a consensus from other contributors during a live merge proposal. Goodreg3 (talk) 14:08, 26 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Looking back, it seems as though I changed by mind, and thought that the case for the merge was so obvious that it could reasonably done boldly. Very happy that this has come back to discussion, consistent with WP:BRD. Klbrain (talk) 08:36, 10 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support merge, responsibilities is a major aspect that should be covered in the main article, and there are not currently any size problems. Ideally, the lists should be prosified as well. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 🛸 19:24, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
  checkY Merge completed Klbrain (talk) 20:31, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Problematic content

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Content in the history section from before the 1997 referendum is tangential to this article and should be removed. This article is about the devolved Scottish Government, which dates back to 1999. Historical content is already dealt with at politics of Scotland, and is outwith the scope of this article. Yours, &c. RGloucester — ☎ 06:08, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have taken care of this by trimming content unrelated to the subject of this article, and including links to the main article on the history of Scottish devolution, which is titled Scottish devolution. Yours, &c. RGloucester — ☎ 23:57, 12 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

'The Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland'

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@Goodreg3, I'm puzzled by your recent reversion of an edit of @RGloucester's from last month. You have given an edit summary, "RV to original. Unexplained removal." But I can see that RGloucester did, in fact, explain his edit. He said in his edit summary, "the government is the 'executive arm of government' is impossible to parse and confounds two different meanings of the word 'government'." I'm not particularly animated either way I think, but I know RGloucester is nothing if not thorough, so a little unfair to dismiss his edit as unexplained like that and may be worthy of discussion. Dgp4004 (talk) 21:34, 7 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I am sure @RGloucester can fend for himself. I have since noted that he did indeed provide an edit summary, however, it was nothing short of largely unexplainable in my opinion. The version I have reverted to (which it is worth pointing out has been a longstanding version) is similar in tone to other devolved governments in the United Kingdom including the Welsh Government, so see no reason as to why this article should be difference. If the user is merely suggesting that the Scottish Government is not an "executive arm" of the government, then perhaps we ought to investigate the definition of it. For clarity: "The executive is the part of the government that executes or enforces the law or alternatively The executive is the branch of government responsible for the overall governance of a state. In countries which base their political system on the separation of powers, the executive branch of government is responsible for enforcing and executing laws made by the legislative branch of government. Goodreg3 (talk) 21:48, 7 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
As I said in my edit summary, the version you restored confounds two different meanings of the word 'government'. One of these meanings is the 'executive', and the other is to refer to the political system as a whole. The sense of 'executive' is generally given as the usual sense in British English, hence the genesis of the term 'Scottish Government', which refers specifically to the executive. Writing the Scottish Government is the executive arm of the government of Scotland is utterly confusing, because it uses these two, different meanings in the same sentence. How is one supposed to parse the difference between 'Scottish Government' and 'government of Scotland', when in reality, these two terms are synonyms? I think the problem here is that American conceptions of 'government' are being applied to a context in which they don't apply. 'Separation of powers' and 'branches of government, for instance, are American concepts rooted in the presidential system; British systems, including the current Scottish devolved administration, do not have a clear separation of powers. That is to say, members of the executive are also legislators, law officers also participate in cabinet, &c.
My change was intended to break through this confusion, by eliminating the use of the term 'government' as a synonym for 'political system', which is unusual in this context. If there is something undesirable about my proposed wording, I am open to compromise. I must insist that the present wording be remedied, however. Yours, &c. RGloucester — ☎ 00:03, 8 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I am happy enough with the compromise you have since incorporated into the article. That being said, however, if this has flagged as an issue here at the Scottish Government, then surely we ought to be paying some attention to the Welsh Government page too, as this has the exact same wording as that which caused issues here. Goodreg3 (talk) 20:13, 8 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I appreciate your graciousness in coming to a compromise. As for Welsh Government, I will see what I can do. Judging by the talk page discussion, it seems that some editors there are slightly confused, using strange terms like 'branding' to refer the terminology 'UK Government' or 'Welsh Government'. The internet really has resulted in the dominance of Americo-centric understandings of the world at the expense of other traditions. Yours, &c. RGloucester — ☎ 23:18, 8 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
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