A political party the union and -
By David Moon T
HE FUTURE of the United Kingdom as a unifi ed nation is
fi rmly on the table this election. This is not merely a question of the Scot ish National Party’s policy on independence for Scotland, however. A far more pernicious infl uence is coming from the centre-right.
Under pressure, the Conservative Party – and the Conservative supporting press – is making the infl uence of Scot ish politicians at Westminster a central feature of its election campaign, testing relations between Scotland and England in so doing.
This has reached new heights now that Cameron has unveiled a remarkable proposal to produce an annual report detailing how decisions made by the Scot ish government aff ect the rest of the UK. This so-called Carlisle principle
12 May 2015
would then allow the other parts of the union to respond by taking compensatory action.
Treating the Scot ish as naughty children to be given report cards by their apparently wiser elders and punished if they do anything wrong is likely to further fray the ties that bind aſt er May 7. But the danger goes further, linking to the Conservative Party’s rhetoric regarding the SNP and Scot ish MPs as a whole.
Treating the Scottish as naughty children to be given report cards by their apparently wiser elders and punished if they do anything wrong is likely to further fray the ties that bind aſt er May 7.
This Conservative narrative started in September. Aſt er voting to stay in the union, Scotland’s reward was to be told that its elected representatives could have even less power in the UK parliament. Under plans announced by David Cameron, MPs from Scotland would be prevented from voting on laws deemed to only aff ect England. This add-on had been missing from campaign literature calling for a No vote.
There are legitimate reasons for debating such a law – as well as obvious dangers and problems with it in practice – but the timing was a slap in the face to Scot ish voters. The subsequent debate over English votes for English laws also tipped into English nationalist language from some Conservative MPs.
Current electoral predictions suggest a centre-right coalition will be diffi cult, if not impossible to form. The
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