Saturday, 20 September 2014

Ready?

I have been observing the sheer difference of Scotland all my life. But this one takes the biscuit. Rioting because you have won? What? I mean, what?

With the Government wholly committed to the Barnett Formula, which has no statutory basis but which is presumably now to be given one, there is no such thing as a purely English item of parliamentary business.

Every piece of spending in England has effects in Scotland and Wales. "English votes for English laws" cannot, simply as a matter of fact, be done in its own terms. What "English laws"?

6 comments:

  1. Cutting through the rubbish as always, Mr. L. Ken Clarke was mocking this back of an envelope scheme on Any Questions. Cameron is an amateur.

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    1. And not even, as he probably assumes, a gentleman amateur.

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  2. Yes indeed-which is why, as Frank Field and Dr Reid say today-English votes for English laws must also mean the end of the disgrace that is the Barnett Formula (which was only ever intended to last a year at most).

    Devo Max by all means-when we have constitutional and democratic justice for the English too. The sort of scum who think England is the only one of the four nations that shouldn't have control over its own tax and spending (not to mention healthcare) have had their day. Likewise the scum (aka Ed Miliband and Mrs Harman) who think only Labour is entitled to fiddle the constitution for its "political advantage".

    Things will never be the same after this weekend.

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    1. Now I know that you are just a computer program. You are certainly not a reader of this site, or of my published work elsewhere.

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  3. As David Cameron said today, the Barnett Formula will diminish in relevance when the Scottish get their own tax raising powers. No new taxes, healthcare policies or other laws that affect only the English should be allowed to pass from that day, without the consent of a majority of English MP's whose constituents will be paying those extra taxes or affected by those laws. Devo Max when-and only when-we get English votes for English laws. That's representative democracy. That's democratic accountability.

    Cameron is absolutely right on this one. And Miliband has shown "One Nation" is all a hoax. His rebel MP's-most of all the excellent Frank Field-aren't going to put up with this outrage any more. Nor are the Tories.

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