While media attention has
been focused on Greece and the budget little attention has been given to the arrival in the
House of Commons of the Scottish National Party. Free from the pressure and
power of British party whips, the Scots are already starting to rattle the
cages of the establishment, and it will soon become obvious if it has not
already that the Scots will only be British when it suits them.
The British must have known when they gave Scotland a devolved parliament in 1998 they were violating the
‘All for one, one for all, One Nation, One Parliament’, basic principle of the Union,
yet they put their heads in the sand to its consequences. They have been lucky to
avoid these consequences since devolution only because of the power the British
political party’s have held in Scotland.
Now that British power in Scotland is in the hands of the nationalists the Scottish pigeons
can truly come home to roost, and from what we have seen so far they are
clearly not going to sit back quietly and feast on the gifts of the referendum.
The Scots have done the English a favour here and exposed how the democratic
imbalance of devolution is enabling all of the national parliaments, not just
Scotland; to interfere in English domestic affairs, and much of the time it can
be seen to be to their own country’s advantage, hence the proposal by the Conservative
party to introduce an ‘English Votes for English Laws’ (EVEL) policy in the
House of Commons.
The one thing outstanding
from the debates so far in the HOC on this
policy is that EVEL is going to be unworkable unless the three nations, Scotland in particular play ball.
The democratic imbalance in Britain goes far beyond the introduction of EVEL and the
denial of a parliament for England; it is a systematic attempt to write England out of the political story. Without a parliament England has no political voice.
Despite having these parliaments Scotland, Wales, and N.
Ireland still retain ministers
in the cabinet, and each has a separate select committee, grand committee, and BBC TV station, all solely dedicated to their own affairs. Lets not forget either a tax funded grant given to these nations based on an outdated formula called Barnett that gives Scotland 10.66% Wales 6.02% and N.Ireland 2.87% of any money the British spend on England; at present gifting Scotland alone an amount equiverlent to over £1600 per head of population more than England. What can England do about it? nothing, What does England have? absolutely nothing, and the ‘Better Together’
British cabal that only twelve months ago fought to keep Scotland in the Union
are now promoting a ‘Better in Bits’ policy on England, and instead of backing
this up by recognising England and its nation with a parliament they are trying
to introduce an EVEL policy on the HOC that if nothing else admits that the UK parliament is now not fit for
purpose.
J. Stanhope
West Midlands
Campaign for an English Parliament
