What John Swinney suggests regarding a Scottish Chancellor makes perfect sense. Unless you are ideologically opposed to the power of the Westminster elite being diminished in any way. We are on a trajectory which inevitably leads to independence. With every bit of power that is wrested from the jealous grasp of the British establishment and returned to the Scottish Parliament where it belongs, it becomes increasingly difficult to rationalise the continued withholding of related powers.
It is an incremental process. It is gradual. But it is also an accelerating process which must, at some juncture, arrive at a tipping point. The point at which it becomes patently untenable for powers to continue being withheld. That point is likely to be reached rather sooner than most people suppose. In fact, it could readily be argued that we have already passed that highly significant milestone where the locus shifted from Westminster to Holyrood.
For too long people have been asking the wrong question. They have been asking what powers should be exercised by the Scottish Parliament. The stunningly obvious answer to that question is that Holyrood should exercise all the powers of a democratically elected parliament. Those powers rightfully belong with the body that has a mandate from the people of Scotland. To assert that a body rejected by the people of Scotland has a superior claim to authority is plainly anti-democratic.
The question we should have been asking all along is, what powers are we prepared to assign to Westminster to be exercised there rather than in the parliament that we actually voted for. Those who would allow any powers at all to be added to this list are becoming an increasingly beleaguered minority.
John Swinney's suggestion of a Scottish Chancellor further chips away at the structures of power, privilege and patronage which define the British state. As with every other stage in this process of dismantling the anachronistic and dysfunctional political union, the idea will be met, first with ridicule; then with opposition; then with acceptance; then with claims to ownership.
And so it goes. Few will recognise it. Some will vehemently deny it. But Scotland is already in the process of transitioning to independence.
"And so it goes. Few will recognise it. Some will vehemently deny it. But Scotland is already in the process of transitioning to independence."
ReplyDeleteWhat nonsense!
That 'Transitioning; is going to take forever, funny how indyref2 was off the SNP's conference agenda Peter...
The finance deal over Barnett and the Smith Commission is further proof of it, if the SNP are 'Transitioning' to independence, then it's amusing to see the SNP clinging onto Barnett for dear life.
If anything your beloved SNP Peter, have kicked the Indy further down the road.
Where it will remain until oil prices recover, if they ever do.
In the meantime Peter, you can sit here posting nonsense, day after day, month after month, year after year, waiting in vain for independence.
It'll be always just out of reach...
Another British nationalist fanatic offering up an incantation in the forlorn hope of fending off the dreaded progress that threatens its comfortable status quo. A pathetic sight to behold!
DeleteThe fact that you seem to genuinely imagine "indyref2 was off the SNP's conference agenda" demonstrates just how deluded you are. Silly child!
*Slow handclap* There Mr Bell...
ReplyDeletePerhaps I might ask when is the next indyref to be?
Name the time and date.
I'm guessing its not this year...
Meanwhile in advance of what would have been 'Independence day', I'll leave you with this;
http://ianssmart.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/independence-day.html
No doubt you will be choking on your cornflakes as you read it.
I sense in your angry wee outburst the same tone we tend to find in the utterances of all British nationalist fanatics in the wake of the first independence referendum. Bitter resentment at having momentarily enjoyed the illusion of victory, only to then suffer the indignity of watching as all the prizes were taken by those whom you hate with such ferocious vehemence. A rancid mood which is aggravated by disappointment and frustration as the economic ruin that you had hoped for with the collapse of the oil price has failed to materialise.
DeleteIt really grinds your gears that the fall in oil revenues has had so little impact on Scotland's economy. And now that the price is rising again there seems little prospect of the suffering you wished on the people of Scotland. That must really hurt.
I, of course, could hardly be more delighted. It's great that Scotland's economy is doing reasonably well. But this is even sweeter when we know how much even this moderate success irks those who wish us only ill.
I have no idea what the voices in your head have been telling you to make you believe that I have either control over or foreknowledge of the scheduling of the next independence referendum. Like pretty much every British nationalist fanatic I have encountered, you seem utterly baffled by the democratic process. The concept of popular sovereignty is totally alien to you. And you appear to suppose that democracy only qualifies as such when it produces results conducive to the interests of the ruling elites of the British state.
You genuinely are incapable of comprehending that it is the people of Scotland who will decide when the next referendum is to be. I accept that you are more comfortable being told by your political masters. But that's the old politics. Much as you may abhor the very idea, Scotland is moving on. You can try to keep up. Or you can be left behind. I can find no good reason why I should care either way.