This is Douglas, a town about the same size as Arbroath. Its the capital of the Isle of Man, a small island in the Irish Sea. The government of the Isle of Man sits in Douglas, and has far more power than the government of Scotland, despite Scotland being much larger in area and having over 50 times as many people in it. The Manx government controls ALL of its domestic affairs. The only thing it lets Westminster control is defence and foreign affairs. This puts the latest Westminster bill on more powers for Scotland in perspective. Before the referendum, various figures in the No camp were promising that if Scotland voted No to independence, we would get home-rule, devo-max, near-federalism and even devo-super-max. What this has boiled down to after the referendum is a draft bill which waters down even further an already-pathetic offering from the Smith Commission which allowed Westminster to keep control of 70% of Scotlands revenues. While the Isle of Man has control over ALL domestic revenues and policy, we get control over road signs. If Scotland has even come remotely close to getting the home-rule we were promised before the referendum, then why does an island with a population smaller than Dundee have far more power than we do? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas,_Isle_of_Man
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 15:33:29 +0000
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