@colmc54
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Don't you think there are now irreconcilable political differences between the Kingdoms of the UK?
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I don't know about "irreconcileable" but I do know that the regions, distant from the southeast, have, in the past, had to offer tax breaks to attract jobs and, as South Wales knows, only too well, the day that tax break runs out, the company packs up and leaves these (by this stage dependent) communities in the lurch. They will not tolerate full-rate corporate taxation in *any* country and surf from one discount zone to another.
The devolved parliaments acknowledge that permanently reduced rates/corp taxes are the only way to go. If Wales and Scotland can't grab as many jobs as they can, the rest of their devolved government function becomes increasingly pointless. As the phrase goes: "you had one job!"
Note: I am making a basic assumption here that all companies want to set up HQ in or as close to London as possible but that's only to assure the widest labour pool possible. If the work is divvied up right, they can set up in the regions, not have to compete with O.T.T. London salaries, yet not worry overly about being unable to find high-skilled recruits, in the narrower labour pool.
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There would be more democratic representation overall if either England or Scotland voted to leave the UK.
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If any one nation stepped out, it wouldn't be "U", any more. If England stepped out then calling the disconnected remains "United something" would just appear silly (to the rest of the world). A celt theme though… ;-)
I don't know if there ever was a time when people just paid their taxes without a second thought, because it was for the king, queen or the country's benefit but, in recent decades, there is ever more awareness of the pain of it and more concetration on exactly where it is going. We find it is going "away", to London and the southeast or syphoned off by Europe. That, I think is what drove the desire for localism, devolved government close to where we are, ensuring our taxes are disbursed somewhere which is at least *close by*.
Conservatives should treat "collectivism" as anathema to them but that is exactly the manner in which our taxes are being handled. We pay; someone else seems to be benefiting.