Can you explain to me how, as a Scottish voter outside Gordon Brown's constituency, he is any more accountable to me than he is to you?
Thank you,
Ewan Macdonald
Imagine this scenario, Ewan.
In England, Mr Brown as Prime Minister, decides to legislate on the NHS. It is not a terribly popular piece of legislation he has in mind, but it goes ahead. There is nothing the electorate in England can do it about it because Mr Brown is not accountable to the electorate in England.
In Scotland, Mr Brown is accountable to his own constituents, but as the legislation will not effect his own constituents, it doesn't concern them.
So England has a PM who is unaccountable for the vast majority of his actions. A lot of the legislation passed by Mr Brown's Government will have absolutely no effect on the people that have elected him to represent them.
In the old days, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had Secretaries of State to represent them, but England was considered too big to need anything. In these days of devolution, England, Wales and Northern Ireland all need parliaments, or we should return to the days of just one parliament for the whole of the UK.
I personally favour parliaments for all, it is the only fair way - for instance, local government in England should be decided by the people of England via a referendum in their own parliament, not by Gordon Brown to suit his own political ambitions.
If the UK is to remain, the UK Government can be reduced so that it takes care of issues such as defence. And each nation has its own domestic parliament. Equality.
Hope this answers your query and thanks for the e-mail,Cheers,
Chris
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