Scotland votes in separatists

In his last election campaign (although he wasn't contesting his own seat) Tony Blair got a big slap in the face. In England, the Conservatives won the lions' share of local councils. Labour held on to power but lost its absolute majority in the Welsh National Assembly and will have to deal with Plaid Cymru, the region's separatist party, as official opposition. The big story, however, is in Scotland where by just a single seat the Scottish National Party won a minority government -- and Alex Salmond becoming the Premier of Scotland.

The form of devolution that has emerged in the UK under Blair is, as some have called it, bastardized federalism. It's also a sore point for England for which Westminster is both the national and regional assembly. It leads to the problem that English MPs have no say in regional affairs to devolved areas but MPs elected from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are fully able to vote on English matters. An example of this came a few months before Blair won his third term in office. He asked for a vote to nearly triple tuition fees in England up to £3000. Heavily opposed by many of his backbenchers, the bill passed by just five votes -- bolstered by no less than the SNP who got huge concessions from Blair in return. This was seen as preposterous when one considers that in Scotland and under a Labour / Liberal Democratic coalition, tuition in that part of the UK was reduced to zero, zip, nada.

Salmond had promised to hold a referendum on Scottish independence within three years. Not very likely if the three traditional parties have anything to say on it. Indeed, Sir Menzies Campbell, the leader of the national Lib Dems, said Salmond could flat out forget trying to form a coalition with Britain's third party. So I doubt we'll see a latter day René Lévesque any time soon. I think what Scottish people want first and foremost is competent government and a greater say in regional as well as national affairs.

Not too unlike the situation here in Canada, except nearly everyone in Scotland speaks English and less than 1% Gaelic; and many of the A-listers in England are in fact Scottish. So separation will have to be based on something other than language and culture. But this is kind of fun, seeing the similar debate we've been having here on the Western shore of the pond for decades.

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