Aftermath of the Scottish Referendum (or what to do about the West Lothian problem)

Although the vote was less than a week ago we are already in a different world. The Scots, or at least most of them, have elected to remain a part of the union called the United Kingdom. I have posted quite a few times about it. I am pleased that the result went the way it did because it means nothing changes. I don't like change

But does it mean no change? Immediately after the result David Cameron sets about dismantling the union. He is promising to give the Scots more local  powers but also producing law to stop the Scottish taking part in Non Scottish affairs. If that isn't driving us apart I don't what will. David Cameron's response is as always a knee jerk action to assuage the more difficult part of the Conservative party membership that wants Everything English to be first and foremost and doesn't that Nice Mr Farage speak a lot of sense.

There has been an issue termed the West Lothian Question. My recollection was that there were periods of Parliamentary time put aside, in this instance for Scottish centric policies, where only Scottish MP's could vote. However Scottish MP's were able to vote on ALL aspects of Parliament even if they only concerned England. Such was the arrangement after the last devolution try out in the 1970's.

So what David Cameron seems to be suggesting is that the voting rights of Scottish MP's will stunted. England only policies will be voted on by England only MP's. Now you might think that is all fine and dandy but what he is suggesting is actually creating a parliament that is supposed to represent the Whole nation but in fact makes some MP's more powerful than others. 

In my opinion a national assembly must discuss and vote on national issues. If there are occasions where not all the sitting members are entitled to vote then what we should be looking at is not discussing it at national level. 

Since Margaret Thatcher especially but also since the end of the Second World War successive governments have sought to bring power to Westminster. We already have regional seats of government that could deal with this stuff. We have borough councils, we have County Councils and then we have Westminster.

What David Cameron should be doing is devolving power back to these institutions. Power and accountability would be much closer to the ordinary person. What we should be looking at is the appropriateness of Westminster. All sitting members must be able to vote on any legislation that comes before them. If not the legislation should not be before parliament. Labour toyed with regional assemblies but in the North East they were recognised as expensive talking shops with no real authority. 

I say give the powers back to borough and county councils so that local issues can be resolved locally. We need to federalise the UK.

Of course David Cameron's real reason for this is that a large proportion of Labour seats come from Scotland and this could prevent Labour from ever taking power again.