because you guys cant? bit of a vacuum going on right now, it might pass but feeling that i have to start getting more involved, it might be a knee jerk reaction but i have been trying to join the snp yesterday but the sight has been overwhelmed. looking at there tweets, in the last 24 hrs people are joining in there droves most coming from labour, now got the largest membership. it's plain to see, with the rise in ukip and the Scottish referendum people want change, it just remains to be seen if you have the balls to carry it through.
good question. what HAS brought us to this? whats pissing us of at the mo? is it austerity? wars? inequality? cant pin it down. from an early age i have never been happy with people telling me what i can and cant do but i promise you i am not an anarchist.
It is very difficult to pin down. What do we really expect from our politicians ? Honesty, integrity, standing up for what they believe in and offering a vision of the future. What we get is people realising that the world is infinitely more complicated that we all think and they often can't do what they would want to do so get on with what they can do. Elites look after elites whilst telling themselves and others that they are doing for some higher good. I don't believe it elites ahve always looked after elites, what has changed is how elites establish and maintain their power base. I want a simple world but it just isn't. Maybe we do have the best from many flawed systems of government. But I firmly believe that too many people look to government rather than themselves for their wellbeing, we need less government not more and the EU is a step too far.
I read somewhere that at the height of the Empire, two or three hundred years ago, there were just 17 MPs presiding over it. How many just in the UK now? 1000?
deffo agree with most of that johnv, i like the idea of Europe. need to reflect on this while. @figaro is having to many mp's part of the problem when many cant agree on the color of shite.
I like the idea of Europe also, it is a great place and I voted to join the Common Market it 1975. But the EU is a very different place.
We're losing our cultural identities. Every town in Europe is the same as the next one. I find it quite sad.
You're lucky, you have a Scottish National Party. Can you ever imagine us being allowed an English equivalent? English political representation, in fact English national identity is taboo. Your national identity is a thing to celebrate, ours is condemned in advance, essentially by a leftist political and media establishment which is terrified of losing all influence in in a naturally small "c" conservative England. UKIP is not an English party. It is an anti-EU party, and it is pro-Unionist. I'm a federalist. I oppose UK membership of the EU and though that is a different political arena it is Westminster again that is trying to stop us talking about it.
Should MPs from city constituencies be stopped from voting on matters affecting only rural areas? Should MPs from inland areas be able to vote on legislation about sea ports? Should MPs from the North of England have any say over laws affecting the City of London? It seems to me a good principle that every MP has a full and equal right and duty to speak and vote on all matters, regardless of what part of the UK they concern. MPs are not constrained to represent only the constituency which elected them - all MPs represent the whole UK. I am opposed to introducing different classes of MPs with different entitlements to vote, depending on the issue.
I agree with you Pete however the present arrangement gives Scottish voters influence in all matters in all parts of the UK whilst English, Welsh and N Irish voters have restricted influence in Scotland. This is the West Lothian Question and it has never been satisfactorily answered. With increased powers to the Scottish Parliament that gap gets wider not closer. How would you resolve this disparity ?
That is why it is wrong that English MP's can't vote on so many issues for Scotland whilst the 47 Scottish Labour MP's vote on all matters relating to England. Surely this must change before any more meddling in the setup of the United kingdom as a whole.
The West Lothian question is an artificial one, mischievously contrived by Enoch Powell and perpetuated by Tam Dalyell. The fact is that the Scottish parliament is entirely the creature of the UK parliament, as are the assemblies of Wales and NI - the only powers they have are those delegated to them by the UK parliament, powers which could be taken away again (and in the case of NI, actually have been suspended at times). So ultimately all of the MPs at Westminster still have, and have always had, full powers over every part of the UK. The West Lothian question is only hypothetically a problem. The real problem is that politicians find it inexpedient to spell out the true position as I have just done, because it annoys voters in Scotland, Wales, and NI. So they prefer to fudge it, in the customary way.
Or the two go hand in hand, which is what David Cameron is proposing. And who gave Gordon Brown a mandate to change the constitution of the UK ?
It would seem that that position is about to change, or is it ? Politically it would be almost impossible for a government at Westminster to take back powers already granted and the fact of the matter is that the Scottish electorate do have wider democratic control than the voter of the rUK. So I would suggest that the West Lothian Question is a very real one.
If the vote in the recent referendum had been YES, full powers would have passed permanently to the Scottish parliament, and MPs from Scottish constituencies would have ceased to be able to vote at Westminster. But the vote was actually NO, which means that the powers of the Scottish parliament (however great or small) will continue to be those delegated by Westminster as before. That is what the vote was about, and its conclusion was pretty clear. Thus MPs from Scottish constituencies must continue to be able to vote at Westminster as before. Simple.
