This is a copy and paste from a discussion on John Jennings page. Its been a really good debate, but Johns summary here is worth reading. Thanks John Jennings. Becca: Its such an exciting and inspiring time. People are genuinely having in-depth and well-informed political debates in parks, on buses, in pubs and at workplaces. I would love to see something similar happen in England. Perhaps a future EU referendum - as much as I dread it - might get people thinking again about whats important to them. Rachel: Lovely to hear from you. I think others have responded pretty well to your first point. I do genuinely understand and am sympathetic to the notion that we are better sticking together to make the UK a better place for all. I think in may ways, its the strongest progressive case for a No vote, although Labour havent been very good at getting the message out there. My concern, however, is that the UK has ended up with an exceptionally messy constitutional arrangement. Scotland, Wales and London all have a degree of autonomy, and an extra layer of representation, which the rest of England do not have. Essentially we have two classes of citizen - no wonder some people feel alienated and angry. There is talk of devolving more powers to Scotland which may mean that we end up with two classes of MP in Westminster, too. Many people in England are resentful of the funding settlement for the devolved powers, and are angry that public spending is higher per head in Scotland than it is in England. Again, that is understandable. Add to this the constitutional mess in Westminster - an electoral system which ignores minority voices, an unelected second chamber etc - and an angry, fearful disconnected electorate, and you end up with a country that is essentially ungovernable in its current form. Westminster could have solved this problem long ago through radical constitutional reform - a federal system with fully autonomous regions - but instead they chose to protect themselves and the status quo. This vote has been necessary to shake up the status quo - cause a bit of panic and constitutional chaos - and if we vote yes, I hope it will force the rest of the UK to look again at their constitutional arrangements, formulate a written constition which everyone can have a hand in crafting - and decentralise power out of London. If we vote No - Im still optimistic for the future, actually. I think the shockwaves that a high Yes turnout will send through Westminster might actually force us to look again at how things are done. One thing that I absolutely hope does not happen is that more power is devolved to Scotland and thats the end of that. It would be a huge insult to the other people of the UK and it just not an acceptable solution. Westminster has been so complacent, though, that this referendum has been necessary to force these issues, whatever the outcome tomorrow morning.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 11:42:35 +0000
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