SO CAMERON IS back in power and before his second term
finishes he may (like Ed Milliband) regret ever standing for a second term.
There are two fundamental issues facing his premiership which have nothing
directly to do with economics, but will haunt his second term. The first is
Europe and the second, Scotland.
He has
promised (thanks to the efforts of Ukip) a referendum on Europe in 2017. There is
some speculation among the now diminished views of the commentariet that it
could even be earlier; before the end of this year. We will now see what
Cameron's promise amounts to. He has promised to renegotiate our terms of
membership within the EU and then put the results to the British people in a
referendum on our membership (a membership which, let us remember, he nevertheless
supports); which allows for much jiggery- pokery to take place; and those of us
who believe in the nation state and voted Ukip, will now have to rely upon
Conservative back-bench Eurosceptics (because of the first past the post voting
system) to make sure of the detail of any negotiation before it is put before
the British people.
Tory Euro-sceptics however, have
an unhappy record regarding holding their party leadership to account on
Europe. This election result will test their loyalty to what they believe is
either in their countries or their party interest. The Conservatives have a 10
seat majority over all other parties, and this gives, on the issue of Europe a
decisive role to be played by Tory Eurosceptic back benchers, some of whom will
be invited into ministerial positions to fasten their mouths shut on any issue
regarding Europe; and allow their pro-European leader to dictate the European
agenda.
AS FOR SCOTLAND. A Cameron government will appease wherever
possible the 'ginger munchkin'[1]
who will remain north of the boarder, now being partly allowed from north of
the border to govern England, by the Tory party who wish to see the continuance
of the Union at almost any cost. Cameron will try to accommodate the SNP in
order to save the Union. How far he is prepared to go depends upon what England
is prepared to accept.
The
Union means more to the Conservative Party than it does to the majority of the
English people who will not suffer lightly the insults targeted at them by
Sturgeon or Alex Salmond (and they know it); and the English people will be
watching very closely as to how Cameron deals with this. It is said that
Cameron is now confronted by such vital issues for the country once faced by
Margaret Thatcher by the unions and Argentina. If he is to attain her kind of
authority, Cameron must match her accomplishments; accomplishments that will
need solutions to both the European and the Scottish problems facing the UK
that will secure the English nation's support.
The
Union may be facing its termination; and if so the English nation will need a
new direction separate from that of the Union; and it is now up to the
Conservative Party to broaden the English horizon beyond the Union. The Union
may be dead after the SNP advance. If so what future is there for the
Conservative Party unless they can convince the English people that the Union
still serves a purpose?
Such a
Union purpose has fulfilled its rationale over the centuries. But now we have,
in the form of the SNP, a rebuke that we have to take seriously because of the
2015 election. The SNP want one thing and one thing only, an independent
Scotland. If so, the answer to Cameron must be to let the Scot's once more vote
on a Scottish independence referendum, within months of taking power. Let the
Scots decide once more whether they want independence. The Tory party must let
the Scots decide for themselves – propose another referendum and see what the
SNP has to say.
Give the Scots another
referendum; let them decide again on whether they wish to remain part of the
Union. If the Union is to die; then let it, as far as Scotland is concerned,
die. The English will continue to survive without the Scots biting at our
financial heels, and demanding ever more English taxpayer's money to be deployed
north of the border.
I BELIEVE IN THE UNION and have always done so. But the
Conservative Party must not compromise with the SNP over the Union. If they do
so then it will be to the detriment of the English. Tories have always held a
soft spot for the Scots even if the Scots have a reciprocal loathing for the
Tories. It makes no sense apart from the re-design of the Union flag that the
English should kow-tow to the Scots in such a manner that many Tory and some
Labour politician's whish us to do.
Let
Scotland go. The cross of Saint George will be a sufficient trade mark of
English nationhood. Let the Salter rule north of the border as a similar pillar
of nationhood. Go Scotland, is what I say. Go it alone; live once more upon
your own resources (which they have never before managed) without any
contribution from England. In fact I would prefer such an accommodation to the 56
SNP politicians taking up residency in the Westminster Parliament bent upon
carrying out a guerrilla war against Westminster itself.
Cameron must allow the Scots to go their own way. The fashionable
idea currently fascinating some Tory thinkers is federalism. Give the Scots the
right to raise their own taxes as a compromise for keeping the Union in tack.
It will
not work, the SNP wishes full independence. Let them have it. Give them another
referendum; let the Scottish people once more decide where they wish to go – so
as an issue; be rid of it once and for all – let the English go free.
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