1) The Scottish Parliament will be granted the power to unilaterally abolish the Westminster Parliament, as long as 61% of MSPs vote in favour of doing so. This equalises the current situation whereby 326 out of 533 English MPs (61%) can unilaterally abolish the Scottish Parliament at any time, even if every single Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MP votes against. If it makes the London press feel any happier, we can always put a meaningless platitude into the legislation about how "it is recognised that the Westminster Parliament is a permanent part of England's constitutional arrangements, as long as we stay in a good mood".
2) The Scottish Parliament will be granted the power to veto any constitutional changes affecting England, provided that 61% of MSPs vote for the veto. Loud cheering is strongly encouraged. This equalises the current situation whereby English MPs were able to veto Full Fiscal Autonomy for Scotland on Monday night, even though 95% of Scottish MPs voted in favour of it.
3) An English Affairs Select Committee shall be set up as a hybrid Holyrood/Westminster body. The majority of the members will be MSPs, but don't worry - a substantial minority will be English MPs, one of whom will be allowed to be chairman as a special treat. There will naturally be just as many SNP MSPs as there are English Tory MPs. This equalises the current situation whereby just FOUR of the ELEVEN members of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee will actually be Scottish MPs (all of the other seven represent English constituencies), and whereby there will be as many English Tory MPs among the members as SNP MPs.
4) The Scottish Parliament will be allowed to influence the levels of public spending in England. This equalises the proposed EVEL scenario whereby English-only votes will be permitted on legislation that alters the amount of public spending going to Scotland, via the Barnett Formula.
5) There will be a U-turn on the rejection of a "double majority" system for the upcoming EU referendum, ensuring that Scotland cannot be overruled and dragged out of the EU against its will. This equalises the current situation whereby Mr Cameron feels that it is intolerable that England should be "overruled" by a UK-wide majority. It seems that double majority arrangements are not incompatible with living in a "glorious United Kingdom" after all.
Cameron's EVEL omnishambles, is precisely what you would expect from an out of touch chumocracy utterly clueless as to the complexities of Devolution.
ReplyDeleteIt is an unworkable mess that has ZERO prospect of satisfying anyone who understands it that it is 'fair', least of all scots.
Even the backbench tories (those who don't realise it's a power grab by the executive to make fundamental changes to the rights of MPs by an obscure parliamentary procedure) will be less than amused when they realise scottish Lords can still vote on English Laws and that the concept of primary legislation has just been binned.
It's self-evidently a dog's breakfast and the obvious product of a couple of tory twits like Hague and Grayling trying to solve the WLQ in a mere matter of days.
It will most certainly be used by us for Holyrood and from now on as absoluter proof that "BetterTogether" was and is lying bullshit and that the westminster establishment are a corrupt, undemocratic and incompetent bunch of fools who treat the scottish public with contempt.
Nicola doesn't mince her words about Cameron's EVEL omnishambles either.
ReplyDelete"Commenting on the UK Government's English Votes for English Law proposals, Scottish National Party leader Ms Nicola Sturgeon said:
"The Tories have produced a constitutional shambles - staggering in the extent of its hypocrisy and incoherence.
"Under these plans - which are all about cutting Scottish MPs out of votes which impact on Scotland and our budget - the Tories are proposing an 'English veto' and 'double majority'.
"And yet they are imposing a totally inadequate Scotland Bill - which fails even to live up the recommendations of the Smith Commission, never mind responding to the election result in Scotland - on the basis of the vote of a single Tory MP in Scotland, in defiance of the views of the 56 SNP MPs and frequently the 58 non-Tory MPs.
"The Westminster system wants an English veto - but rides roughshod over the democratic rights of the people of Scotland.
"And there is to be a 'double majority' for the benefit of Tory MPs in England - but the Tories reject a double majority to stop Scotland being dragged out of the European Union against our will, as the 56 SNP MPs and others have proposed.
"I have been very clear that, at least in part, the level of support for independence will be determined by what the Tory government at Westminster does, as well as what the SNP Government does. And there is no question that the great disrespect shown to Scotland in these proposals is likely to have more people asking whether Westminster is capable of representing Scotland's interests at all.”
As I said, expect it and yet more out of touch nasty party incompetence to feature very heavily indeed in the Holyrood election campaign.
I can't say I'll ever understand these English Tories. On the one hand they are the ones shouting loudest about how much they want us to stay in their precious Union, yet their actions suggest the complete opposite.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I'm just an amused onlooker, sitting back, feet up, waiting patiently.
Not long now...
--/ opens another bag of popcorn /--
DeleteIt certainly is beginning to look like one of those awful disaster movies.
DeleteAt times like this I wonder if they secretly hoped we'd vote yes last Septemberand get out of their hair. It's all more ammo for the doorsteps as we head towards next May.
DeleteLong live imperialism!
DeleteIn terms of balance,I think we should invite the Germans to join our union.
ReplyDeleteThe seat of government,based on population share,could then be moved to the Reichstag
to which England could send it's elected representatives.
The Germans could appoint a majority of their elected representatives to the English Affairs committee to ensure that things went the way they wanted.
The question is,how long would it take for England's press pack under those circumstances to start demanding WWIII to commence?
In terms of a successful economy, Germany would be a better country to be in union with. Must admit I'm left puzzled as to why Scottish unionists aren't advocating such a move. After all, economics is the main reason for union right?
DeleteSounds good to me.
DeleteNo more pro-Westminster than I am pro-Holyrood. Two bad answers to the same question in my book. Bring on the Germans, I'd vote for that.
Meanwhile there's a visitor from 2012 on the guardian ranting about the evil Scots preventing the glorious (failures) english ladies from competing at the 2016 Olympics. Usual sneers and racism A&BTL.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't matter that there was an agreement between 4 equal FA's that the one-off event was just that. What the english want is what should happen.
EVEL off tossers!
Sneers and racism? Don't be cross. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
DeleteDear James,
ReplyDeleteYour points are well made, I think.
Do I detect a touch of righteous indignation creeping into your posts here?
Well, join the club.
I do wonder whether this will impact in opinion polls? In an ideal world I would hope it boosted the independence figures, but it is the silly season and I'm not sure too many people are paying attention. Are there any polls due that might clarify?
Why are the SNP NOT saying these things to Ca-moron?
ReplyDelete