Scottish Independence

[Davy51]

You have to respect him for that.

[observer]

We've already had an example of the complete lack of vision from Camoron; who's now talking about "more powers" for Manchester & Liverpool; which completely misses the point. Such knee jerk responses, written on the back of fag packets, will no doubt lead to the creation of an even bigger dog's breakfast in England. There are 5million Scots claiming virtual independence through devolution, so it's a no brainer to suggest that the 7million folk living in the N/W of England should expect the same treatment, by having a Regional Parliament. The Germans have such a Federal arrangement, the Ozzies too - so Dave, just do it.

[Bazj]

We've already had an example of the complete lack of vision from Camoron; who's now talking about "more powers" for Manchester & Liverpool; which completely misses the point. Such knee jerk responses, written on the back of fag packets, will no doubt lead to the creation of an even bigger dog's breakfast in England. There are 5million Scots claiming virtual independence through devolution, so it's a no brainer to suggest that the 7million folk living in the N/W of England should expect the same treatment, by having a Regional Parliament. The Germans have such a Federal arrangement, the Ozzies too - so Dave, just do it.

 

More politicians creaming off masses of expenses and perks from the taxpayer???

 

No thanks

[observer]

It would only be "more" Baz, because our political turkeys won't vote for Xmas.  IF, powers were devolved from Westminster; there would be an argument for less MPs, and certainly a change to that glorified old folks home called "the Lords"; so a reduction of around 300 MPs and 600 Lords, saving around £80million for starters.  As for new structures, Regional Parliaments could be elected on a Party Lists basis, rather than constituencies, thus allowing numbers to be kept smaller. Half the civil service in London would have to move out, bringing there jobs and contractors to the regions. And if we ever do get round to exiting the EU, there would be huge savings on MEPs and the Brussels gravy train. But your cynicism is well founded, as politicians will tend to protect their personal and Party interests rather than the National interest, so I guess we can look forward to an expensive dog's breakfast.

[Robbo]

So Alex Salmond was right after all, Scotland CAN still use the pound after Sep 18th.

[Goonerman]

None of us literally can afford to be indifferent to this issue as it centres on economics. That affects the whole of the UK. If Salmond and Sturgeon, those two fishy SNP politicians seriously think giving Scotland max dev and special treatment cannot affect England and the other two nations then they are living in cloud cuckoo land. The fact is, since 1603 the peoples of these islands have been avoiding a holistic approach to governing what we now call the UK both collectively and in terms of its individual parts and now is the time to finally sit down and work the UK out properly. Miliband is right- a constitutional and economic UK convention is needed. The Irish Republic also needs to be involved as the UK/Ireland land border has implications for corporation tax issues especially for all Ireland companies and the Republic finally tightening up on corporation tax which had been lax. I find the SNP incredibly arrogant and dogmatic in their attitude. 'Independence' would have been funded by rUK. Had I been a Scottish Nationalist I would have still voted no. If Scotland were to leave it should do it ALONE. But, I am glad Scotland is still with us. No, everyone in all regions must sit together and collectively work out packages for the whole of the UK. None can isolate one region from the other. For the first time since the crazy billiard ball effect on these islands of ours hit our ancestors in the Civil Wars of the Three Kingdoms in the bad old days of Charles I, maybe people can wake up to the symbiotic links between all the regions and stop indifferently and selfishly think we have nothing to do with each other. Tough. It's time to face up to reality.

[observer]

A federation of regions, like Germany; would be a simple way to deal with devolution - but that would be too simple for the politicians.

[observer]

Too simple indeed: seems the "independent" report into Scots devolution is recommending they have jurisdiction over taxation - would this mean that the English will no longer be subsidising them and they'll be left with just 5 million tax-payers to squeeze?  Meanwhile, the dog's breakfast is well on it's way, with the nonsense of a UK Parliament, where Scottish MPs won't have a vote on "English issues" (that'll take some working out!); and the promise of English devolution has descended into the farce of "City Regions" with various Councils fighting over the scraps of power being written on the back of an envelope.