SO Keir Starmer has appointed Gordon “The Vow” Brown to head his constitutional convention in the hope that he can prevent us getting independence. I wonder who will take part as the Tories want to abolish devolution and plan to overrule decisions made in the Welsh and Scottish parliaments.

If Keir Starmer wants to set up a constitutional convention, where is he going to start? England doesn’t have a constitution and neither does the UK, while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do. However, if he does start there, that inevitably gives the courts more powers to make legal rulings on parliamentary decisions and Boris (Make England Great Again) Johnson wants to severely limit what the judges can make decisions on.

Then of course there is the PR system of electing our representatives. The devolved administrations all use the PR system but Westminster doesn’t and England doesn’t have a parliament as it’s part of Westminster. I don’t see the Tories agreeing to PR for Westminster as they don’t need Scottish votes, whereas Labour need both Scottish and Welsh votes. The PR system was rejected by the electorate in England, and that definitely wasn’t a generation ago. So is he going to wait another 30 years before the English get another chance to vote on this part of his plans?

We then come to the Fixed Term Parliament Act, which Boris wants to abolish. All modern democracies work on a fixed-term parliament. Obviously if the Tories don’t want it, how is he going to get it adopted when Boris has an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons? Then of course when are Labour going to win another General Election!

If you are going to have a constitutional convention, and presumably a public debate on it, then you have to propose an English Parliament, elected by English voters. However, the English don’t want an English Parliament and you can’t Make England Great Again if they can’t have control over other nations.

And what are you going to do with the Lords? Some of them are Scottish, Welsh and Irish and they can be appointed to the Cabinet and make decisions on the other parts of the UK. These peers would have to be made redundant and then where would England be without its class system?

As Starmer’s objective is to prevent Scottish independence, then you need to discuss how to set up a UK legislative body if you are going to get rid of Westminster. This would have to ensure that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have an equal voice with that of England. England has around 80-85% of the electorate and you can be assured that they will demand at least that amount of representation, if not more and what is the smallest part of the UK to get? One representative? Better make it two then the Republicans can share power with the Loyalists!

Of course that will mean that the English representatives will make up the majority of any committees formed, any Cabinet members and the UK Government.

In a partnership of equals, then Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland would take an equal opportunity to be in charge of the Government. And of course don’t forget that as the objective is to prevent the SNP getting any power, how do you prevent them doing so and demanding independence? Sounds as if we are back where we are at present.

If you are going to change the system of government in the UK, then you also need to change how projects are funded and how the devolved administrations are funded. You can’t have purely London and the South East funded by Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish taxpayers. That inevitably means higher taxes for England and the South East. Doesn’t Sir Kier Stammer realise that the South East of England has the highest proportion of millionaires and billionaires and that one reason they are rich is that they avoid paying taxes?

Keir Starmer seems to have gone the same way as a number of former English politicians and leaders: delusions of grandeur and a big head. I could understand the idea of a constitutional convention if the last 17 opinion polls were demanding a change in that direction but they are saying that Scotland wants independence and that the SNP are going to win a majority in the next parliament. When 58% of the electorate say they want independence, then you have to listen to them, but that is one reason why the Labour Party is losing voters quicker than water going over Niagara Falls.

What we now have though is presumably Gordon Brown leading the No campaign for Labour, Michael Gove leading the No campaign for the Conservatives – all we need now is who is going to be the fall guy for the LibDems and the date set for the referendum. There must be a lot of brown underpants in the Labour camp right now and it’s going to be 2024 before the next General Election!

Alexander Potts
Kilmarnock