I wrote a piece on the Union between England and Scotland the other day, so I won’t dwell on the subject for long. But the issue has clearly swamped the airwaves in the past couple of days, because of the impending anniversary of the Act of the Union, in a way that had not really been anticipated.
More interesting is that Tony Blair has been forced to come out in staunch support for the status quo, taking a snipe at the SNP at the same time. He has claimed that we don’t need an English Parliament because we already have a United Kingdom Parliament. One must wonder, then, why he felt it necessary to devolve power to Scotland.
He then went on to say that he doesn’t want to create a two-tier system of Members of Parliament. One must wonder why he thinks that Scottish MPs should have little accountability for their actions, legislating primarily for England.
Tony Blair is in a bit of a sticky spot. Of course he will never admit that his government’s policy towards Scotland has created this mess, but he could have the decency to come up with some “real democracy to the rest of the country, too” rhetoric. As it stands, he looks as foolish and short-sighted as his policy was.
Comment must also be made on the apparent incongruity of wanting devolution to the regions, but supporting increased powers for Europe. But more on that another time…
The New Constitution 