Now most people would tout the devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales and NI as one of Labour's biggest achievements in government.
As much as i think it is progressive to give powers back to people, it is also regressive as it splits the country up.
Even more importantly was how foolish it was to try and build a stronger United Kingdom without addressing the strength of the laws that made it.
To me the Act of Union 1707 and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 because of the lack of democracy back then aren't democratically strong. As they are the biggest constitutional changes in our history (they are the laws that make up the foundation of our United Kingdom) they need also to be the strongest.
Yet they are the weakest, a definition in law as to what is democratically valid with regards to constitutional change and to make sure that it applies to the whole constitution because we want everything to be democratically valid is enough to invalidate the Act of Union 1707 and Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542. That would make Scotland, England and Wales independent as if the union never happened.
We actually (thanks to Labour) might have a government willing to put this into the constitution making sure that a Prime Minister cannot hand powers over to Europe or make any other constitutional change without the blessing of the people.
Now you don't build your house on weak foundations, so why would you try and build your country on weak foundations?
Looking around the country, i see the Scottish parliament wanting more powers, the Welsh Assembly wanting more powers, England wants its own parliament, there is growing want for English independence, Cornwall wants its own parliament. This doesn't sound like a strong UK.
I strongly believe we need to re-negiotiate the union and how we actually shape our country with a written constitution written by the people not the politicians.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
So in your view in the UK "the people" who get to decide how the UK should be governed, are only and exclusively the English?
ReplyDeleteBecause the Scottish Parliament was instituted with the blessing of the people - overwhelmingly, Scotland voted to have our own Parliament back - and if you think a Scottish referendum would vote to dissolve out Parliament again, you have another think about that one.
Possibly a UK-wide referendum would let the English vote to dissolve the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and NI assembly, against the will of the Scottish, Welsh, and Irish people. If you think that would be a good thing, you clearly don't believe that parliaments govern with the consent of the people...
No but the English do decide the UK government because they are 10 times bigger.
ReplyDeleteI think they might, it is hard to believe i know but i think if there was the right settlement for a full union we might do just that, in fact it might be the right thing to do.
The history of Westminster is that they do not govern with the consent of the people. In fact the history of Westminster is doing exactly the opposite of what the people want.
Labour did devolution in a nationalistic way. We need to deal with how the UK is governed as a whole not on individual nationalist levels.
Also Yonmei i didn't say that we would choose to dissolve parliament again in my original post but that we would choose more & more independence from the rest of the United Kingdom.
ReplyDeleteThis is more & more likely when England votes in a Conservative government on behalf of the UK. Scotland does not believe a Tory government is best for Scotland ( I agree) so there will always be underlying tension with a Tory government esp. on issues that are still reserved to Westminster so there will be greater calls for more & more powers to the Scottish parliament resulting in effective independence if not complete independence.
We seriously need to look at the laws that make up the foundation of the UK. We need to make sure the UK is governed how it wants to be governed & we need to include all the nations not let individual nations decide how they are governed. Every nation has to stamp their approval on how the UK is governed.