All joking aside, the independence and devolution debate needs to be broadened to include the
entirety of the UK.
The Union that Jim defends is no longer the same as the one prior to 1999. Whereas before everything was centralised at Westminster, now Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are home to devolved assemblies. In the case of the latter, it's probably the only way that the Northern Ireland pressure cooker can let of steam without an excessive amount of violence. The Labour Party in the person of the late Donald Dewar is responsible for Holyrood and since the other non-English parts of the UK were getting something, so did Wales....
The Union
must evolve as the current setup is, IMHO, grossly unfair on England - as I've said before and will continue to do so, non-English MP's can vote on English matters that their English colleagues can't do in return. The West Lothian Question has to be resolved one way or the other, as does the Barnett Formula.
Putting voting restrictions of non-English MP's at Westminster strikes me as little more than a half-way house.
Scotland only has a population of 5 million or so,
of course it's going to cost more to provide services as there isn't the economy of scale that there is in England. The various party's mania for the "low skill, low wage" model of economic management continually cripples the ability to generate enough taxation revenue to cover Government spending. That applies to
whole of the UK, not just Scotland. After all, whereas the UK average wage is roughly £26,500, in Scotland it's only £20,862 (approx). That contrast should make the most ardent of pro-independence supporters pause, assuming it can get past their blinkers! There have been some rumbles in Holyrood about adopting the "Scandinavian Model" of "high-skill, high-wage", but that needs more investment in education and won't be an immediate panacea. Assuming someone has the balls to actually try it!
What does baffle me is the seeming unwillingness of England to demand it's own devolved Parliament. The referendum in 2004 about devolution for the North East of England foundered - why? Fear of too many politicians, inter regional rivalry, fears that it would cost too much? I do wonder if the English sense of identity is so joined to being British that the two are one and the same, whereas elseware there is a subtle distinction.
Mike.
