Dear All
One of the things which has been happening in the background
for some considerable time, is the work being done to attempt to create a
Federal Britain.
And just to show that I am on top of the game, here is my
youtube video, and you can also look at my other videos on motion graphics.
I did a video intro project some time ago on this, but put
it on the back burner, now I have uploaded it and stuck it on the front burner.
Federalism is an option, and is favoured by some politicians,
in the UK and that includes Scotland everything is up in the air politically.
A group of senior cross-party politicians published a draft
Bill to create a new Act of Union, this is something coming from The
Constitution Reform Group (CRG), headed up by people like the Marquess of
Salisbury, who is the former Conservative Leader of the Lords, Lord Hain, the
former Labour Northern Ireland Secretary, and Lord Campbell, the former Liberal
Democrat leader.
The aim of the 48-page Act Of Union Bill 2016 is to “to
affirm that the peoples of [our] nations and parts have chosen to continue to
pool their sovereignty for specified purposes, and to provide universal
citizenship with social and economic rights”.
So, is this the silver bullet that can kill off the SNP and
their followers?
No, time and lack of delivery will do this, coupled with
their incompetence, there are several hurdles, and the first isn’t federalism,
it is tampering with the 300-year-old act of union in the first place.
Ming Campbell said:
“The referendum on Scottish independence followed swiftly by
the flawed implementation of English votes for English laws and the enormous
electoral success of the SNP, brought to the forefront of public consciousness
the deep imbalances in the make-up of the Union. The CRG was formed to address
these imbalances and we believe that the Bill we have drafted is a good
starting point. We want to turn the process of devolution upside down; the four
nations of the United Kingdom should be sovereign but agree to pool that
sovereignty on issues that it is agreed are best handled at a UK level. “The
issues that divide the nation are far outweighed by the common values and
cultures that have bound us together for hundreds of years. We hope that the
new Prime Minister will take this unprecedented opportunity to realign our
Union and secure it for centuries to come.”
Could the new Prime Minister Theresa May jump on this
bandwagon?
Not in this term of the Westminster Parliament, not a
chance, the main aim that she has is to steady the ship, not plan for any
adventures of discovery.
The bill includes proposals for:
the creation of an English Parliament
strengthened Scottish Parliament controlling all powers
except those “central policy areas” assigned to the UK Parliament
the abolition of the House of Lords
a new UK Parliament revising chamber with members elected to
it from the UK’s four national parliaments
increased regional devolution
central functions financed by central taxes such as income
tax, VAT and corporation tax
the renaming of the Bank of England as the Bank of the
United Kingdom with members of the board drawn from the four parts of the UK.
This is in part a response to the English votes for English
laws, when this came in I was unhappy about it, there shouldn’t be a two tier
system operating in Westminster, all MPs even the less than gifted from the SNP
should have the same voting rights at every stage.
In political terms, it is very early days; does this solve
the problem of Scottish independence?
Not really.
The issue of the people is really about a disconnect between
the people and the political elite, the Labour Party chaos at present is an
example of this, people who get elected who then don’t see themselves as public
servants but rather as ‘managers’ of the people.
Keep an eye on federalism and more importantly who is
promoting it politically.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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