The Daily Telegraph, however this morning in taking a different tack, has just delivered Mr Salmond a nice slice of manna from heaven for his Monday breakfast:
Tory MPs tell David Cameron: Cut Scotland's subsidy
Well, actually:
"Seventy two per cent of Tory MPs in the poll said they believe that England is 'losing out' because of devolution to Scotland and Wales" and "Seventy four per cent of Conservatives said the current system for distributing money around the UK is unfair on England."Which obviously isn't so much of a "screamer" aimed fair and square at the Telegraph's typical reader, but, nevertheless, is a fairer summary of the analysis contained in the report.
Probably the balanced analysis of all, though, comes (not surprising) from the authors of the report, Guy Lodge and Michael Kenny. Rather than the headline-grabbing "English Tories to nick money from Scotland", they have instead concentrated on the constitutional side of things, the democratic deficit that asymmetrical devolution has thrown up:
Only 1 in 10 MPs supports the status quo (the present system of governance). If the Conservatives win the election, the pressure on David Cameron to address the 'English question' will be particularly intense, although across all the main parties there is a strong feeling that inaction is no longer an option
4 comments:
114 mp's surveyed? it should have read only 114 mp's could be bothered to answer the ippr survey.
If the Conservatives win the election, the pressure on David Cameron to address the 'English question' will be particularly intense...
The problem for David Cameron is the same one that Gordon Brown faces and Nick Clegg would face if he ever made it to No. 10 and that's that none of them want to break the myth of Britain as a nation.
As soon as England is separated out from Britain then Britain is shown to be the political union it is not the unitary nation that all the big two and a half want us to believe in and Scotland and Wales stop being portrayed as regions and have equivalence with England.
Never happen.
>>Rather than the headline-grabbing "English Tories to nick money from Scotland",<<
Thanks for the laugh! New Labour- and by extension their pals in the meedja are so feart of diluting their anti-Scotland pro Britain message that not even a headline attacking the Tories will suffice if it exposes anything untoward about the union.
I don't think Labour would have many friends at the Daily T. It's a subtle change of direction there in the nature of the article, aimed more at English grievance than their trad pro-Union message- needs watching.
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