The English Question

April 28, 2015 Longrider General News, misanthropy, Political 6

A thoughtful piece from Geoffrey Wheatcroft on the West Lothian Question.

Like Wheatcroft, I always had underlying qualms about devolution. It was a muddle rather than a solution. If Scotland and Wales wanted their own governments, then that is what they should have. What we got was a mix and match that left us with a situation where we,the English, can be dictated to by a portion of the UK where we have no opportunity to vote. If Labour do get into bed with the SNP, the English will rightly see this as unjust. Previously, the SNP did the honourable  thing and kept out of English only matters. Now, with the whiff of power in their nostrils – and a spot of revenge for last September – they are casting aside any notions of honourable behaviour. Labour on the other hand never had any such notions and, despite claims to the contrary will also abandon any behaviour if it means Milliband and Balls can get their grubby hands on the levers of power.

Meanwhile, the English electorate will be royally shafted.

I am not an English nationalist and don’t want to become one, but faced with injustice on this scale I have had little choice. After the election, I may have none at all.

Quite.

6 Comments

  1. This has always been a problem. The Act of Union specified the minimum number of Scottish MPs should be at Westminster. As the population of Scotland dwindled, the Scots became over represented. Blair could not afford to reduce the number of Scottish MPs to a justifiable number, or he would not have won any more elections. Had Scotland been properly represented, The Labour Party would have only one the 1945 and the 1997 elections. Labour can not afford to give Scotland full independence, or they would be finished in England.

  2. “and a spot of revenge for last September”

    Revenge for what?

    It was the Scottish electorate who didn’t do what “The Party” wanted them to. They have nobody to take revenge on.

    Or is it just that everything that goes “wrong”, everywhere, at all times and under any circumstances, is always the fault of “The English”? Even when no “English” are involved?

    • Or is it just that everything that goes “wrong”, everywhere, at all times and under any circumstances, is always the fault of “The English”? Even when no “English” are involved?

      This.

  4. Had Scotland been properly represented, The Labour Party would have only one the 1945 and the 1997 elections

    This is widely believed, but is simply not so. For example, in 2005 Labour won 314 non-Scottish seats out of a total of 587 non-Scottish seats. That’s a majority.

    2001 was even more decisive: 357 seats out of 587.

    Sorry, but you have to face the facts: Blair won because England voted for him. You can’t pass the blame on to the Scots. They do get an equal share of it though.

    The number of Scottish seats was reduced in the 2005 election to 59, which is a slight over representation – it should be 55 based on population.

    And the population of Scotland hasn’t dwindled, though it did shrink slightly between 1971 and 2011. It hasn’t grown at the same rate as England’s population, however. If anything Scotland was significantly under represented in the 1707 settlement (one sixth of the population but less than one tenth of the MPs).

  5. I now understand why the SNP want to be in the EU, though. They have the same attitude to referendums – you keep having them until the people give the correct answer.

    Nationalist and socialist. It’s not going to end well, I fear.

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