Dear All
It seems that Scotland’s unpopular Deputy
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has decided to ‘stand up for Labour’.
Her latest pitch of angry Nationalism
centres around the fact that Scottish MPs continue to be outvoted on issues
affecting everyday life in Scotland.
Scotland doesn’t have the same number of
MPs as England; her argument is therefore in part a numbers game.
Apparently the years when there is a Labour
Government and Scottish MPs vote along Government lines don’t matter.
Sturgeon says this is one of the “many
flaws” of the Westminster system of government.
Democracy is a flaw?
Nicola Sturgeon pointed to 10 policy areas
where a majority of MPs representing constituencies in Scotland now have
opposed the decisions taken in the House of Commons.
The issues include the recent
implementation of the bedroom tax to the invasion of Iraq.
If Labour were in power, down South, and
introduced the bedroom tax, these same anti bedroom tax MPs would be voting for
it if whipped.
Her ‘democratic case’ for independence is
incredibly weak.
Ms Sturgeon said:
“We know that Scottish MPs at Westminster
have voted against many key aspects of UK policy. Under the previous Labour UK
government, a majority of Scottish MPs voted against Trident renewal and the
invasion of Iraq. This year the welfare benefits cap and the bedroom tax were
both opposed by 91% of Scottish MPs. This week Scotland’s MPs backed
challenging green energy targets, whilst Westminster as a whole voted against”.
She added:
“There are many flaws with the current
Westminster system of government. The first-past-the-post electoral system is
deeply unrepresentative”.
And as we have seen in newspaper reports,
the list system for Holyrood can be rigged; this story might help explain
further how that could be done:
As one SNP official said to me, the SNP has
the best election system that money can buy.
Presumably she is advocating PR because
there is no other way that the SNP would increase Westminster seats unless
perhaps there is a total collapse in Lib Dems vote which they might benefit from in the sticks.
She added the power of the House of Lords
contradicts basic principles of democracy.
How wrong she is, does she ever watch House
of Lords debates, and then she might have caught the recent one on Rehabilitation
of Offenders which some on the Lords have openly criticised the UK government for
lack of detail on their recent Bill.
To address more of her shit talk; Westminster’s
doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty is incompatible with the fundamental
principle that, in Scotland, sovereignty rests with the people.
That is just delusional wank.
Sturgeon added:
“Those problems could, in theory, be
reformed although there is little sign of that happening. However, the biggest
problem with Scotland’s current constitutional position, that majority Scottish
opinion on issues that affect our everyday life can always be outvoted, cannot
be dealt with through change at Westminster”.
Westminster would be dancing to Holyrood’s
tune, the tail doesn’t wag the dog dear
Sturgeon finally rattled out:
“Scotland now faces a choice of two
futures. We can continue to make up less than a tenth of the MPs in Parliament
whose decisions on welfare, defence and the economy routinely disregard our
wishes. Or we can become a truly equal partner through independence.”
Unless there is a Labour Government, apparently
Ms. Sturgeon seems to be believes that democracy only can happen if Labour is
in power in Westminster.
The ‘cure’ therefore is that the Scottish
Tories get elected to more seats in Scotland thus curing the problem for Ms. Sturgeon.
They must be laughing their heads off in
Westminster as Nicola Sturgeon ‘stands up for Labour’, democracy works; the
people have spoken and they say firmly, keep the SNP out of Westminster in
large numbers.
Part time SNP MPs are irrelevant as they
continue to be little better than squatters.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
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