The referendum is over, and the Scots decided they want to
stay with the UK.
I'm glad – I think that Scotland and England (and Wales and
Northern Ireland) really are "better together" as the much-maligned
campaign slogan says. The loss of that
many smart people and that much land would have crippled the UK. (You can read
a million analyses of the loss to NATO for example.)
The good that came out of the campaign is that the Scots
have been promised Devo Max. As I've mentioned before, that's great, particularly
if the rest of the provinces (read: England outside the Home Counties) are
given the same powers. I know Yorkshire and Lancashire would benefit from
devolution that allowed them to set income tax rates on a regional basis (among
other things) and although I don't know how say, Tyne and Wear or Cornwall
think, I'm betting many there feel the same.
The fact is that Westminster is a sphere unto itself. It governs based on
what the City of London (a very small part of Greater London) wants and
doesn't deign to notice what the other
60 million people of the UK want. And the voters in the UK have the choice of
the Conservatives, who promise something but I'm not sure what they speak like the adults in the Charlie Brown
cartoon) and Labour, who are Conservatives pretending to care about working
people in order to get votes.
Yeah, I was a card-carrying Labour supporter in the
eighties. Not so much now.
Looking forward to Devo Max for Yorkshire.
No comments:
Post a Comment