Local Elections

So today is the big day, eh? Scottish Independence appears to be on the cards thanks to an unpopular war in Iraq & some fairly blatant ‘all things to all people’ populism on the part of the Scottish Nationalists – all of which seems a real shame, given the successes of the Blair government*. To end on a low seems rather a shame – but, as Wilson said: all political careers end in failure. Whether Scottish Independence actually comes about as a result of this is another matter; the voters (according to the polls) seem to be going to the ‘opposition’ rather than out of any determined desire for Independence. It just happens that the Opposition in Scotland is the Nationalists.

Personally, I’m not sure that this is a bad thing; forcing the Scottish Nationalists to be responsible for doing things would concentrate peoples minds a bit & would take away the SNP’s luxury of being in opposition & engaging in policy by sound-bite. Presently they’re pretty much untouchable – so I for one say let them form a government. As Abe Lincoln Said; ‘Most people can handle adversity fairly well. To truly test a persons character, give them power’; I think that the same is doubly so for political parties.

 

Also, it would force the government (in London) to actually put constitutional reform properly on the political agenda & finally resolve the painfully drawn-out reform process that we’ve got at present that’s left us with a muddle. We’ve got some Elected lords, some Hereditary, a collection of Bishops, Scotland having a devolved parliament, Wales having a devolved assembly (but with less powers), Ulster (perhaps) having an assembly, (if they promise to play nicely), the English feeling generally rather hard-done by & the government being bound by tradition & not (say) the rule of law under a formalised constitution.

 

Actually, an American friend & I were talking about this a few weeks back; he expressed amazement that there were so few limits on the British Government, what with no written Constitution etc. I made the point that the situation is very useful for governments who want to fight opportunistic wars & grabbing Empires (ie for use against the French) – but I suspect that in this day & age of nuclear weapons (now also possessed by the French) that wars of opportunity (against the French) are going to be pretty thin on the ground.

 

Who knows? Perhaps we can form a “Commonwealth of Great Britain & Northern Ireland”, with a written constitution, a bill of rights & properly sort out the entire devolution / West Lothian question. Monarchists get to keep the Monarch, Republicans get to say that they’ve got a formalised, written & democratic Constitution (the most important elements of a Republic, surely?), each nations Nationalists get to say that they’re being represented more as they have a National Parliament (in York, Edinburgh, Cardiff & Belfast respectively), each with a wide set of reserved powers, whilst – at the international level – the nation remains coherent enough to represent its citizens interests as a single political entity. And whilst they’re at it, they can re-introduce the shilling as the 25 pence coin & appoint me Lord Protector. Thanks.

 

Ok, I know that constitutional reform is very much an issue that’s reserved for political nerds, but constitutional reform just… itches. Like a scab that you really want to pick. Perhaps the metaphor is valid; if you pick at scabs, occasionally you bleed. And no-one really knows what the fruits of a Scottish Nationalist victory would be.

 

Apologies for the abundance of quotes, btw, but I’m het up about this. Moreso that I can’t vote in said elections, now that I live in a different country.

S

 

*The Independent Bank of England, the progress made in the Northern Ireland peace process, the reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions & the reduction in hospital waiting lists amongst them.