HANG on! Let’s hear him out! David Frost (I refuse to afford him the title of Lord) and Kate Hoey should have their theory about dismantling devolution properly discussed. They are not the only ones to hold these views, and this is a democracy (apparently) where rather than shutting people down, we discuss, we debate and if there is something to be decided, we choose.
Murdo Fraser’s reasoning for not rolling back devolution has to be the most striking one in its stupidity!
He wants to keep devolution, or so he says, so that he can point out how badly Scotland is run by the SNP?! Most of us want a government that best serves the people, whereas Murdo seems to actually want bad government for Scotland, so that he can point and tell us how bad we’ve got it!
WATCH: Humza Yousaf hits back after Tory peer calls for devolution 'reverse'
I actually consider there to be more honesty being spoken by David Frost than by Murdo Fraser and Donald Cameron.
So let’s talk about it! Let’s talk about how democracy is served when there is a dearth of representation in Scotland from the UK party of government.
2010 delivered just one Tory MP for Scotland. Just as well for them that the funny wee LibDems did a bit better and a LibDem Scottish Sec could be selected.
2015 delivered the same Tory MP for Scotland, but this time they couldn’t rely on anyone else to save their blushes or hide their brass neck. But at least they had just one which was an improvement on 1997 when Scotland became Tory-free! Imagine the crisis if they had clung on as the UK Government but had no Scottish MPs to be Scottish Sec!
READ MORE: Outrage as Tory lord calls to 'reverse' Scotland's devolution
I take it that David Frost would return to the pre-devolution arrangement whereby the Secretary of State for Scotland actually DID run government in Scotland as a fiefdom. Or is his idea to do away with everything that has remained unique and specific to Scotland since 1707? Is he seriously going to sweep away Scots law, for example? Let us hear him. Let us understand the support that he has for his cause – it isn’t just Kate Hoey, is it!
Let’s focus minds on what is at stake. Power devolved is power retained. For as long as we remain in the Union, the continued existence of Scotland’s Parliament is far from certain. The UK’s shape-shifting constitution will always support the supremacy of England’s parliament (for that is what Westminster has always been since the 13th century) and if the government that sits there decided once again to shut our parliament down, there would be nothing within UK law to stop them!
Even if it were true that the majority in Scotland do not want independence, that doesn’t mean that they do not want a separate Scottish Parliament representing Scottish people. It certainly doesn’t mean that they want a return to a UK Government they haven’t supported since 1955 dictating how we live.
But that is exactly the risk that we run by keeping with the Union! We need to discuss this! David Frost has opened up a discussion that needs to happen!
Thom Muir
via thenational.scot
SO it seems that former Tory government minister Lord Frost now wants to put devolution into reverse as it “has resulted only in the recreation of closed-shop fiefdoms”. Lord Frost’s only real claim to fame is that he served as the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator, perhaps not a fact most folk would like to mention on their CV.
READ MORE: Wee Ginger Dug: Lord Frost let the Tory mask slip on devolution
Fellow peer and former Labour minister Baroness Kate Hoey is apparently in full agreement and encouraged him to go even further and presumably close the Edinburgh parliament completely. Predictably SNP and even Tory politicians have jumped to its defence. The Tory MSPs are, I suspect, more concerned with possible loss of their well-paid employment than the good governance of Scotland.
I do wonder if, in the longer term, serious UK Government proposals to drastically cut the power of the Scottish Parliament or even to close it down completely would be no bad thing. It might be the kick in the backside needed to persuade another 10% or so of the Scottish electorate that it is worth saving, and might even be worthy of expansion into a real independent parliament capable of solving the basic economic and social problems which have haunted this nation for generations.
Brian Lawson
Paisley
I MUST briefly praise the former SNP MSP Tricia Marwick for her frank comments published in Tuesday’s National (Former MSP calls on NEC leakers to ‘resign now’) to those SNP officials who are leaking confidential conversations and videos that are potentially damaging the party. This damning criticism is long overdue and should have been uttered at the time of the leaked disclosure.
I personally regard these offenders as infiltrators of the SNP who should be hunted down and removed from the party. Who attended the meeting in question? Surely the answer to my question is the starting point, and one would not require the services of a sleuth-like Hercule Poirot to quickly investigate and identify the culprit(s). Time to get tough!
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf endures world's most brutal induction period in new job
As for this ongoing financial fiasco? I suggest to Humza Yousaf that he quickly resolves one of two possible issues that have hurt the SNP as a reputable political party. Firstly, if there was a criminal in the ranks, then let’s identify this individual (and other possible collaborators) and hand him/her over to the police with relevant damning info attached. If this is not the case, then deal with political infiltrators (there must be more than one!) who have deliberately carried out this sabotage for political gain. In my humble opinion, one of these two scenarios gets to the truth of what has been going on for far too long.
And if the outcome of “no charges, no evidence, nothing to answer” is formally announced? What should follow is the SNP deploying the biggest political retaliation/response ever seen in Scottish political history and absolutely “taking no prisoners” in the process!
Bernie Japs
Edinburgh
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