It was a good speech. He pointed to the Welfare State and to the public ownership of the banks as the glue binding the Union. He listed the NHS and the BBC, along with Christian Aid, among the Union's greatest achievements. He flagged up the enormous global reach that the Scottish tradition of emphasis on overseas aid enjoys through the Union. And he invoked the memory of Campbell-Bannerman and Grimond, Dewar and Smith.
Cameron is in an unenviable position, of course. He will be shot down if he says nothing. He will be shot down if he says anything. He cannot possibly appear to be leading or directing the campaign for the Union once the referendum starts to approach in earnest. Based on today, he should instead quietly write the speeches for Johan Lamont.
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It was remarkably Lindsayesque. David Cameron, Old Labour High Tory?
ReplyDeleteI have been told by a Scottish Nationalist that it was sentimental and vacuous.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing sentimental or vacuous about the Welfare State, or about the public ownership of the banks, or about the NHS, or about the BBC, or about Christian Aid, or about overseas aid in general, or about shared military history (very much ongoing, in fact), or about appeal to all three of the Tory, Liberal and Labour traditions.
The SNP must have thought that all Alex Salmond had to worry about was the Labour Holyrood contingent. Dream on.
Or is it David Cameron, Paleocon? Christian Aid are major critics of trade liberalistaion and strong supporters of Palestine.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you did not mention his remarks about more devolution. That probably turned you purple with rage.
ReplyDeleteAll those predictions that there would be no more devolution over the years. Oh dear, oh dear-----
Shared military history, what about all those peoples of North Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans who had a shared military history via Turkey? The fighting Shquip were renowned for their loyalty to the Sultan.
I don't need to tell you that it wouldn't happen. You have been here before with liberal Tory leaders and their rather harder-line successors.
ReplyDeleteBut what a stark contrast to the "devo-zero" situation we have in England. We good people of the north east should be looking upon the Scottish settlement with considerable envy.
ReplyDeleteThe grievance of England, especially Northern and Western England, concerns, not some “West Lothian Question”, but cold, hard cash. We probably have to talk about the English regions, even if we would prefer to talk about the historic counties from before an unprotesting Thatcher was in the Cabinet. Each of the present or, where they have been abolished in the rush to unitary local government, the previous city, borough and district council areas in each of the nine regions must be twinned with a demographically comparable one (though not defined in terms of comparable affluence) in Scotland, in Wales, in Northern Ireland, and in each of the other English regions.
ReplyDeleteAcross each of the key indicators – health, education, housing, transport, and so on – both expenditure and outcomes in each English area, responsibility for such matters being devolved elsewhere, would have to equal or exceed those in each of its twins. Or else the relevant Ministers’ salaries would be docked by the percentage in question. By definition that would always include the Prime Minister. In any policy area devolved to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, no legislation must apply in any of the English regions unless supported at Third Reading by the majority of MPs from that region. Since such legislative chaos would rightly be unconscionable, any Bill would in practice require such a consensus before being permitted to proceed at a much earlier stage of its parliamentary progress.
No one would lose under any of this: there would be no more politicians than at present, and both expenditure and outcomes would have to be maintained in, most obviously, Scotland and the South East for the twinning system to work. Is it conceivable that Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish voters would not also insist on full incorporation into it, with their own areas thus also guaranteed expenditure and outcomes equal to or exceeding those in each of those areas’ respective twins? Or else the relevant Holyrood, Cardiff Bay or Stormont Ministers’ salaries would be docked by the percentage in question. By definition that would always include the First Minister, and in Northern Ireland also the Deputy First Minister.
This policy is a work of genius, and not your only one. If only you were Deputy Leader and running Labour's appeal to the electorate, you would reach parts New Labour never dreamed off and all the parts they lost. You should be given a seat in the next Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio or whatever, with a roving brief across all departments. If you have to be raised to the ermine for the purpose, so be it. Lesser minds have been to give them jobs in the past.
ReplyDeleteOh, well, he knows where I am...
ReplyDeleteWe penny scribblers only hope that any of our ideas are taken up somewhere, by someone.