It’s a bit rich that Gordon blames Conservatives and nationalists for the current unease with the bodged devolution proposals he and his colleagues gave to Scotland and forced on England without ever asking us our opinion.
You reap what you sow.
It was never a good idea to offer Scotland more powers of self government than Wales, and to cap it with no self government for England. Now??Mr Brown presumes to lecture Conservatives, who wish to give to the English similar powers of self government through the MPs elected to Westminster for English constituencies, in an effort to restore some symmetry and fairness to our governing system.
Mr Brown will discover that the English are slow to arouse, but if he and his party continue to give England such a bad deal it will be difficult for him to control the forces for fairer treatment for England which his one sided devolution has unleashed.
Naturally as a Scottish MP aspiring to be Prime Minister of the UK Gordon Brown feels uneasy about the present position. The Prime Minister of the UK has wide powers as the chief politican of the Union over foreign affairs, defence and taxation. He also has large powers as the de facto Prime Minister of England, able to settle English education, local government, the environemnt, planning,law and order, health, social services?? and much else besides – all the issues that in Scotland are settled by the First Minister and his colleagues in the Scottish Parliament.
Gordon Brown probably remebers the huge fuss his Labour MP friends made in 1992 when a Conservative government assumed power for the whole UK with very little representation in Scotland. They claimed it meant we had no authority or right to settle "Scottish" matters. Exactly the same argument could come back to haunt a Scottish MP seeking to be Prime Minister of the UK today, for the Conservatives gained more votes in England than Mr Brown’s party in 2005.
Many will ask what does Mr Brown know or love about England? Isn’t he determined to introduce the heavily centralised, public sector led slow growth model he and his friends have pushed onto Scotland in the last decade, with such poor results for the Scottish standard of living and freedoms.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College, and has a DPhil from All Souls, Oxford. A businessman by background, he has been a director of NM Rothschild merchant bank and chairman of a quoted industrial PLC.
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This current Stuart Dynasty of Blair and Brown has been as disastrous as the one in the 17th century. Let us hope for another Glorious Revolution but who will be our William?
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