WITH regard to Boris Johnson’s mantra that he wants us to be a union of equals, could I suggest a way in which he could, fairly quickly, show that he is serious about this idea?
• Give Westminster over to the English-only MPs. They would thereafter be referred to as MEPs. This will not be confused with Members of the European Parliament as England is very unlikely to go back.
• Abolish the House of Lords. There will be no need for them.
• Find an existing (eco-friendly, not new) building somewhere away from London that would house a new UK Parliament. I would suggest somewhere like Liverpool, which has eco-friendly means of transport for MPs and staff to use, ie rail and sea.
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• This building should be large enough to accommodate one or two meeting rooms and 40 MPs, together with their (no more than three) staff.
• The responsibilities of this UK Parliament would be the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence.
• All other responsibilities would be handled by the individual parliaments: Westminster, Holyrood, Stormont and Cardiff.
• The UK Parliament would consist of ten members from each of the four nations. The chair of the parliament would be a member from one of the groups, rotated on an annual basis.
• The UK Parliament would budget for an income sufficient to run the parliament and the two ministries for which it is responsible. I would suggest that this parliament divide the total amount sought on a per-elector basis and issue a bill to each of the four parliaments accordingly.
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• All other finance-raising and spending responsibilities would be the responsibility of each of the four individual parliaments.
• Introduce all necessary procedures, including IT, to allow the four parliaments to independently achieve these aims.
The make-up of the new UK Parliament could, I would opine, be based on the MPs voted in at the recent election, proportionally reduced on a proportional representation basis. This could allow it to be up and running for this year’s September opening.
As Scotland currently has a total of 59 seats at Westminster (SNP 48, Tory six, LibDems four and Labour one), this would be proportionately reduced to 10 (SNP eight, Tory one, LibDems one). From a voter’s point of view, I would suggest that the MPs are chosen on the basis of the total number of votes their constituents gave them in the recent General Election. The seats for the other nations could be done on a similar basis.
Bearing in mind the time it has taken to conclude recent IT projects, I would think the financial aspects of this change would take a wee bit longer.
George McKnight
West Calder
THE performance of the Labour party in the run-up to the General Election and since has been a great disappointment to me. When in England I was a lifelong supporter and oft-times member of the party. This only changed when I moved to Scotland, where I found a party which was not obsessed by the battles between the left and right and was not just talking about the policies to deliver fairness and opportunity, but was actually delivering them, in spite of the limitations imposed by the devolution agreement.
Labour need to recognise that the forces of greed and selfishness hold most of the cards and are a hard act to oppose. We are increasingly moving away from a democracy, where people are involved at all stages of decision-making, to an elected dictatorship, where we only get the right to criticise once every five years.
We can win only win the battle for a better future if we build a new progressive alliance. This is the time when the Labour party should be reinventing itself. They must stop repeating the broken promises of the past, such as greater devolution and more control over our own affairs. These were promised un the run-up to the 2014 independence referendum but weren’t delivered. The foundation for a new alliance should be support for Scottish independence. Scotland will no longer accept promises of jam tomorrow without commitments to bread and butter today.
Pete Rowberry
Duns
EXCEPTIONAL letter from Iain (the) Bruce in Friday’s paper outlining the foolishness of playing the part of the ever pleading (whining?) supplicant. Iain says that he is under no illusion the SNP are the key to the door of independence, and the Yes movement is the door.
Unfortunately, if that is the case, then someone please call for a locksmith!!!
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If we take everything into account that’s happened since the 2016 referendum, bearing in mind the golden opportunity that Brexit presents for independence, then we really have to ask ourselves the following question: Are the SNP leadership serious about independence, or are they just using independence as a vote-winning tactic? Answers on a postcard to The National, please!
Solomon Steinbett
Glasgow
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