Scots starting to rattle a few cages

                             

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 Lets not forget either a tax funded grant given to these nations based on an outdated formula called Barnett that gives Scotland 10.66% Wales 6.02% and N.Ireland 2.87% of any money the British spend on England; at present gifting Scotland alone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