Tuesday 11 March 2008

The Grown-Ups Will Be Back In Charge Soon

If a new Cabinet post with responsibility for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland really is about to be created for the ultra-Unionist Paul Murphy, then the fun and games really are about to be over. When Britishness Brown dropped his hint about Westminster "taking back" power (i.e., exercising its supremacy over the bodies that it made and can unmake), then he meant it. This we will know for certain if the Murphy appointment is made.

None of this any sort of reassertion of English dominance (which there has never been, anyway). Brown is Scottish, and Murphy is Welsh with an Irish background. Rather, it is about serious Scottish and Welsh politicians (there will be less of an impact in Northern Ireland) and unserious ones, about those who could get into Westminster and those who couldn't.

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