Pat Smith - Scot - Astonished By "Inaccuracies" In The Cumberland News, Then Supplies Her Own

It is often a disturbing experience to read Scottish nationalist threads - the amount of anti-English vitriol is sometimes astounding. Whilst some Scots share our distaste for this, there are always those who are in denial, but ever ready to scream "FOUL!" every time any English dissent appears in the popular press.

Pat Smith, of Larkhall, Lanarkshire, appears to be one of these.

Here is a letter she sent to the Cumberland News, with a few replies from us inserted (in red italics):

Stop griping about devolution and demand benefits of English Parliament
Last updated 11:05, Friday, 07 November 2008

As a Scot, who has returned to living in Scotland following 21 years in Carlisle, I was astonished by the vitriol penned by your correspondents (The Cumberland News, October 10) on the situation north of the border.

Are you ever astonished by anti-English vitriol from Scots, Ms Smith?

I was also astonished by the inaccuracies in their letters.

Surely, if correspondents take the time to write letters, they should take the time to do some research before making their assertions.

Pensioners in Scotland, regardless of income and wealth, do not receive a free central heating system.

The Scottish Government Central Heating Programme operates a strict eligibility criteria and the programme is not available to all those of pensionable age.

We wouldn't know. We do know they qualify for free care without selling their homes.

Also the Barnett Formula, which I agree badly needs revision, does not carry tax raised in England to Scotland on a one-way street.

Oil revenue raised in Scotland does not find its way into the Scottish Government’s coffers, it goes direct to the UK Treasury.

Firstly the oil is a UK resource. And some of the oil and gas is actually in English waters anyway. And on top of that, back in the 1960s, the UK Government tweaked the maritime border between England and Scotland under the Continental Shelf Act - placing English oil in a Scottish sector. The English were not consulted because it was thought that the oil was a UK resource and revenue would be shared equally. More here.

This has not happened. Not only was Scotland bailed out of bankrupcy by the English in 1707, but the country has benefitted from higher spending for many years since.

If Scotland wants to go it alone, then the maritime border must be corrected and Scotland must meet its share of the UK bills, before it claims the traditional Scottish sector of a UK resource. It is interesting that individuals in the Shetland Isles are also crying "IT'S OUR OIL!" and an increasing number do not regard the Shetlands as a part of Scotland.

As it is, recent calculations show that even if Scotland was awarded all the oil revenue, including England's share, it would not break even - more in the Guardian.

From north of the border, it would appear that:

a) The English have no liking for their own government within a UK Federal State and are content to be governed by a UK government.

We have never been offered our own government "within a UK Federal State". Try doing some research, Ms Smith!

b) The Welsh, who were originally in discussions for a devolved Parliament but opted instead for an Assembly, are content with the current status quo.

Scotland, on the other hand, has had a Scottish National Party Government for the past 18 months and despite Labour Party predictions the world, as we know it in Scotland, has not come to an end.

The main parties in the Scottish Parliament all agree that there should be greater powers devolved to it.

All parties are in agreement with the late Donald Dewar when he said, at the opening of the first Scottish Parliament for 300 years, that devolution was a process, not an end in itself.

It is Gordon Brown and the current Scottish Labour MPs who are reneging on that promise out of fright and their seeming inability to accept that the Labour Party is no longer the Government on both sides of the border.

Your correspondents may not realise that Gordon Brown and his fellow Scots MPs are just as unpopular in Scotland as they appear to be in the rest of the UK.

Then one is Gordon Brown re-elected as a Scots constituency MP?

Most Scots would be hard pushed to name their MP or the Westminster Front Bench, but they would have a fair idea of who’s who in the Scottish Parliament.

Perhaps your correspondents could make more constructive use of their time by persuading their country folk of the benefits of devolution and why a UK Federal State with an independent Scotland would be beneficial to us all.

A "UK Federal State with an independent Scotland"? Does not compute. The UK was formed by the union of Scotland and England. Poor research on your part again, Ms Smith.

PAT SMITH
Larkhall
Lanarkshire

Some good points in this letter, some lousy research and a bit of a one-eyed biased view. Shame.

Thanks to the Witanagemot Club.

Kent Online Displays Its Ignorance On The English Parliament Issue And Stuart Wheeler Loses...

Kent Online displays its ignorance and trivialises the English Parliament issue by claiming it's got us "hot under the stiff upper lip" (surely that's "British"?!) and allowing the final say in its quoted comments to go to somebody with no grasp of the facts at all:

Robbie Craig from Dungeness, said: “ The only point of new government tiers is if they increase the accountability of politicians and bring important decisions closer to the electorate. An English Parliament would not do that.

“Better to have regional government and local government with real power.”

What is the gentleman on about? Non-accountable Scottish MPs, including our Prime Minister, rule us!

Surely the internal government of England should be decided by the electorate in England? All that was on offer was tinpot regional assemblies, which still allowed non-accountable MPs to decide crucial national issues pertaining to England. And health apartheid and the West Lothian Question are running absolutely rampant.

Don't get me wrong, a cross section of opinion is inportant, but the final paragraphs of an article carry great weight. Shame on you, Samantha Payne and Kent Online!

Meanwhile, Stuart Wheeler has lost his case to stop the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty - and even whilst the matter was sub-judice, the arrogant UK Government, headed by no mandate Prime Minister Gordon Brown and including non-objective beneficiaries of the EU Pension Fund like Neil Kinnock, went ahead with discussing and voting on the matter, and the Queen gave it royal assent!

Another bad day for democracy - and one which casts doubt on the honesty of our legal system.

My only comfort is that in the long term dictatorships never prosper. But I shudder at the thought of the damage that will be done before the downfall of this one.

UPDATE: Stuart Wheeler to appeal! Well done that man! He is speaking for an awful lot of people!

Derek Wyatt - Labour MP Calls For An English Parliament...

Sorry I've been so slow with this story, it's plenty covered elsewhere, but I think the word should be spread as far as possible! Derek Wyatt, MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, has joined the chorus calling for equality for England within the UK. Excellent!

This debate has a simple theme. My constituents are living in a half-finished house that costs them money, and they are beginning to resent it. The half-finished house in our country—the United Kingdom—has, like so many historic houses, grown up over the centuries without a master plan and according to the needs or whims of successive owners. Nearly 90 years ago, after a long and bitter dispute, we gave the neighbouring property to its sitting tenants—although some preferred to go on living with us. We spent the next 70 years or so trying to improve our house to make it a better place in which to live and trying to protect it from outside attack. We made no changes to the structure of the house and all the rooms and facilities were shared among all the residents.

However, in the past 10 years, there has been some major remodelling of the property. We converted the upstairs into a separate flat for the Scots and created another flat with inferior facilities in the west wing for the Welsh. We then persuaded the Northern Irish to live in another flat in the orangery—although many of them wanted to live with their neighbours next door. All that remodelling failed to create any special space for the English. They went on living in the property, but the Scots, the Welsh and the Northern Irish were still free to walk in and help themselves to the fridge and the drinks cabinet. They could even make rules for the English that they themselves did not have to follow. Meanwhile, the English went on paying most of the household bills.

More and more of the English, including many of my constituents, are finding that an uncomfortable way to live. They put up with it when there was plenty of money coming into the house, but now that money is scarcer and outgoings are rising, they are beginning to question it. I propose some restructuring of the property so that we can all live in the way that we want to without imposing on one another. I am also calling for a fair and transparent system of meeting the household bills. That will entail replacing the Barnett formula, which, as we know, was intended to be a temporary expedient that would last six months. However, the formula still regulates the financial relationships between the separate devolved entities of the United Kingdom. Our household settles its accounts through arrangements that were set up in the 1970s for reasons that no one can remember and with results that no one can understand.

Read the whole speech here.