There is no West Lothian Question. If the Parliament of the United Kingdom were to enact legislation applicable in Scotland or Wales, then that legislation would prevail over any enactment of the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly. It does not need to use it. It merely needs to have it. And it certainly does have it. There is simply no doubt at all about this, and anyone who doesn't like it should have voted No to devolution. I bet they didn't. If what I am saying were not the case, then, in the SNP's own terms, there would be no need for the SNP.
The real English, and especially Northern and Western English, grievance is not some "West Lothian Question", but cold, hard cash being poured into an area where per capita income stands at one hundred per cent of the national average. Of course, far more of the monies extracted on pain of imprisonment from Shetland to Scilly are expended in the South East, Scotland's twin. Judging Scotland by the East End of Glasgow is like judging the South East by the East End of London. Better to think of Scotland as a bigger Surrey.
I am a leveller up, not a leveller down. I want both spending and outcomes in each of the 12 regions, since we must, to match each other by bringing everywhere up to the standard of the best. And, if that fails to be delivered, by docking the pay of the relevant Ministers. That is the basis for the Unionism that clear majorities in all four parts of the United Kingdom continue to want and need.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Unrealistic student debating rubbish. If Westminster were actually to legislate over the head of Holyrood then it would have done so by now. The constitution is the beginning of politics, not its end.
ReplyDelete"If Westminster were actually to legislate over the head of Holyrood then it would have done so by now"
ReplyDeleteWhy? It never even got round to making theft a statutory offence in Scotland, or to ending free school milk there. The power only has to exist. It does not have to be used. And you really are on your own in claiming that that power does not exist. If it didn't, then there would be no SNP, because, in its own terms, there would be no need of one.
Devolution itself is pursuant to an Act of the Westminster Parliament, which is why further devolution requires another such Act; the referendum was only on the principle, and was ultimately purely consultative, although the Scottish Labour Party still didn't want it because of the purely political difficulty that it would have posed for future repeal, which remains the aim of most Labour MPs from Scotland, whom the last Westminster Election confirmed in their seats for life.