Scottish Independence?

[Oncaro]

Expanding Scotland's ability to govern itself within the Union may actually end up leading to Scottish independence anyway. If Scotland becomes more and more self-governing, as Cameron seems to be suggesting they will be, then Scottish MPs in Parliament are going to be voting on legislation that effectively has nothing to do with their constituencies. The Torys in particularly are not going to be satisfied with that, and we may actually end up seeing a push from the other members of the Union to make Scotland independent.

Well from what I read, Cameron was talking about a "balanced" representation in Parliament or something along those lines and was intentionally vague, so Scotland might wind up not getting as much power as some of them might be wanting. After all, they wouldn't be so stupid from a political standpoint as to give too much power when Scotland houses their nukes and has oil reserves, right?

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Depends on where the political winds are going. Cameron is talking about potentially giving more power to the other members of the UK as well, including England. There are plenty of sentiments in England that say it's not a good thing that Scottish MPs vote on English issues, for example.

 

[Oncaro]

Well... Perhaps they have a point. After all, wouldn't each of the fifty states in the Union feel pissed if the other states had a say in their matters?

It's a pretty bad analogy, but hey, it's 8 am here and I'm tired as shit.

 

[Kaeb]

He's made a lot of promises in sheer desperation, give his ****y track record, I doubt he'll fulfill any of them.

 

[jpchewy01]

He's made a lot of promises in sheer desperation, give his ****y track record, I doubt he'll fulfill any of them.

This. Not to mention the fact that the Tories are pissed as shit at him for making the promises anyway.

 

[Kaeb]

Cameron is a boob.

 

[Green Ranger]

The thing is, Scottish independence at this stage is more a case of when rather then if unless some drastic changes are made to the way Scotland is represented and governed - if British parliament doesn't follow through, we could see another vote within tens years that will use those failed promises to deliver victory. But if Scotland does steadily get more autonomy as David Cameron promised, then they could wind up breaking away anyway, as Bac said.

I think, really, that the only way the UK will continue to exist in the long term is for massive changes to British parliament in terms of giving the neglected parts of the union (ie everywhere that's not England) more political and structural relevance, and working to make each component of the UK more of an equal partner. These kind of changes, mind you, are anathema to the Tory school of thought, so it's unlikely to happen anyway. As has been said, David Cameron's already been getting flak for essentially promising the Scots a semblance of what they really want in the first place.