The Dean

Scotland has its own government?

Well, sort of............ while England has no such thing, and is run by a Scottish Prime Minister, with a Scottish Chancellor of the Exchequer, and... and... and...

Cypselos

My favourite was the guy who's going to give up Whiskey. Still, I suppose the Scots are really Irish.

captainflack

The decision was simple. If you read the trial verdict, there is basically no evidence whatsoever against the guy except some guy on an an island in the med who claims to remember selling him a suitcase full of clothes that he barely looked at. Turns out the chap was paid 2 million bucks by the Feds for the testimony.

Not only that, but the Feds also failed to mention that they'd arrested some chaps from a syrian and iranian backed group some time earlier with exactly the same timers and some explosives.

Megrahi dropped his appeal and couple of days later gets released on compassionate grounds. Pretty clear that an unofficial deal was done. The US/UK does not have the international embarrassment of the dodgy conviction and deliberate suppression of evidence being raked over, and Megrahi gets to go home immediately instead of having to wait months/years for the appeal to wind its way through the system.

The US may be whinging publicly, but in private they are breathing a sigh of relief that their role in this debacle won't be publicly exposed as the reason the guy gets released.

MacScot

Westminster ? Almost two-thirds of the time is debating or handling England only issues (health, education etc). Besides, it's England's 'de facto' parliament with 85% of the MPs from England...so you can push any legislation through. The SNP doesn't vote on England-only issues, perhaps Labour, Tory and Lib-Dem MPs outwith England should do the same.

Perhaps the seat of the UK government should be transferred to somewhere centrally in the UK, say Manchester or Leeds, then transform Westminster into an English Parliament ?

I can't see a Scottish MP ever becoming a PM again ! Looks like inevitable going of our ways.

The Dean

That's not the point - England is overwhelmingly Conservative but it has a Labour government (see map attached).

It's not what they all vote on - it's who is doing the voting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/vote2...html/map05.stm

Cypselos

I agree with the sentiment, but the Labour government promulgates the 'what' is being voted on.

MacScot

Haha..if Scotland were to leave the Union, England might be Tory for a long time to come !

The Tories have only 1 MP in Scotland.

Danajj

Well, in my opinion the SNP are a bunch of tossers trying to play government - the decisions they've made the last few years are shocking. Worst thing to happen letting them in - Scotland's political system with them on board has been a shambles.

And before a riled up Scot posts his displeasure on my ramblings - I am one of the Clan.

MacScot

..perhaps you may be right...but the people seem to like them as the SNP is ahead in both constituency and regional opinion polls of late. Though, the next poll will be interesting.

Danajj

I've just got off my soap box - phew - where did those ramblings come from - having said all that regarding the SNP - the rest of the parties wouldn't have done much better I suspect.

The Dean

Mr Average will fall out of love with the Tories soon enough after they get back into office.

I think UKIP's strategy is very clever - from where I'm sitting, they have decided to do one simple thing.....

Wait.

MacScot

Don't know much about UKIP, except that they beat Labour and Lib-Dems in the Euro elections, with about 16% of the vote. They're not so big in Scotland - 5.3% of the vote and down 1.5% since last Euro election. Though, I can't see them doing too well in a General Election...unless things are changing politically down South.

The Dean

Next year's election: they'll gain some votes but not much more...... I think it will be the one after that when they make a breakthrough - disillusionment with 'major' parties, etc, plus they actually have some sensible policies that people will pick up on.

They are known mainly for their 'get out of the EU' stance and represent a moderate alternative to the BNP on that score.

MacScot

I've made a note to watch their progress.

The one thing I do not understand is why so many people in England are asking for their own devolved Parliament yet not much support is given to those parties (?) promoting it (e.g., English Democrats ? is there an English National Party - like the SNP or Plaid Cymru?)

Cypselos

I think there's possibly a realisation that there's no real demand for another level of government within England. THe country as a whole is to diverse for it to have a real impact, without fruther devolution to a regional level. It gets to the point where you might as well recreate the seven aanglo saxon kingdoms, and even then the Cornish would complain. A few of the free Kernow crowd do already. Wales, Scotland and Nireland are arguably well served by their parliaments, England wouldn't be, especially by one based in Westminster.

Plus given the shambolic behaviour of many MPs who wants more of the buggers.