Gordon, The True Brit?

Gordon Brown, our new real leader, yesterday faced a gentle grilling from the readers of The Independent, I thought his reply to this question was interesting:

Do you think it's right that you can vote in Parliament on issues affecting English people but English MPs can't vote on issues affecting your own Scottish constituents?

The old West Lothian conundrum....and the only possible answer is "Of course, it isn’t right", but that’s what happens when you start having rival legislatures "governing" the same patch of territory.

Brown, needless to say, ignored the question completely and answered something completely different:

I think a system where MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were excluded from voting in the Commons would inevitably lead to the break-up of the Union so I will never support it

And it would also coincidently greatly weaken Labour’s power at Westminster, but I’m sure it really is the integrity of the United Kingdom that’s Gordon’s main concern.


But, apart from that, yes, he is correct in what he says, but that doesn’t address the original question...because the truth now makes for uncomfortable reading for Brown.

Gordon Brown was one of the main driving forces behind the devolution "project" in the mid and late 90s; "It’s Gordon’s passion, so we’re doing it" gushed Tony Blair in 1997. The "passion" of Gordon was the creation of separate parliaments in Scotland and Wales, ostensibly to give the Scottish and the Welsh more control over their own affairs. Scotland and Wales (and Northern Ireland) received recognition that constitutionally and politically they were separate nations under the umbrella of the United Kingdom. Now, of course, at a basic level this has caused confusion with regards to who has the power to legislate (and who funds the grandiose projects dreamed up in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh) and in which area.

More than this constitutional confusion though, it has also caused an (understandable) bitterness amongst many English. Why can’t England also have this cool, sexy, new "nationhood"? Why, for example, should the English taxpayer be subsidising the Scottish students at universities north of the border, whilst their Englsih counterparts have to pay full wack? Why can N.Irish, Scottish and Welsh MPs still vote and make decisions at Westminster, whilst the English have no say over how the various "assemblies" spend the tax revenue coming overwhelmingly from English pockets?

It’s good news that Gordon Brown is now declaring himself firmly behind the concept of the UK and it’s a situation which should be exploited by the real (as opposed to the opportunist or the Paisleyite variety) Unionists........but it is also a tad on the hypocritical side for Gordon to be waving the Union Jack when it is his devolution project which is one of the main reasons why Westminster and ultimately, the United Kingdom as a whole, is a lot weaker now than it was prior to 1997.