Should Scotland Be Exempt From The New Union Bill?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-34560125
Personally I don't think so.

[steg]

"I will not take lectures about democracy from a government elected on only 24% of those eligible to vote - and only 10% of those eligible to vote in Scotland - much less, of course, than the proposed thresholds that they wish to impose on strike ballots."

I don't overly like that bit as the uk gov was voted in with the same system the SNP won 56 of the 59 seats they hold( even tho' I would prefer a more PR set up)

[steg]

Should Scotland be exempt? Probably no, but don't know much about it

[douglas9401]

Re not taking lectures about democracy, this may be the reason that the result of the 'once in a generation' result at the independence referendum seems to be ignored by the losers as they whinge and whine for a rerun.

Attending a couple of lectures may indeed benefit them in their public dealings.

[Jonathan-Joe]

Steg - It's not useful to compare the percentage of votes for / against a strike with that for electing a government. In one case there are just two options, "Yes" or "No"; in the other several or even many options for voters. Its not surprising that with votes split between six or more major parties, the best supported attracts a lot fewer than 50% of total votes.

[steg]

Douglas.. The SNP have said over and over that it would be wrong to have another referendum unless a large number of no voters changed their minds, the "whinge and and whine " comes from the media

[steg]

Jonathan-Joe.. I agree with you apart from the last bit, the SNP got50% of the vote in Scotland

[Jonathan-Joe]

Could I add - In the case of the union vote, if there is doubt about the support for a strike, maintaining the status quo (ie no strike) is viable. But if a party needed more than 50% of the vote to form a government (or a leader needed that to become prime minister) maintaining the status quo of no government would not make sense.

[THECORBYLOON]

Acts of Parliament are passed without a set percentage of MPs having to vote in favour and they have a yes/no option so why should strike ballots be a special case?

[Jonathan-Joe]

But that was in a UK, not Scottish election. They are well represented at Westminster with nearly 100% of Scottish for only 50% of Scottish votes.

[steg]

Exactly Jonathan-Joe, that's why my self and actually the SNP themselves (believe it or not) want a more PR voting system, we have a good system up here for Holyrood

[steg]

I think the SNP are likely to get over 50% of the vote in the Holyrood elections next year

[mushroom25]

you might be right steg; but that pre-supposes that the SNP landslide was all genuine support, without a degree of the protest "stick it tae cameron" camp, which i heard expressed in several glasgow bars before the election.

[steg]

they could of voted labour and "stick it tae cameron"and the SNP , if they had wanted to

[Jackdaw33]

I firmly believe that Scotland should be exempt from all English benevolence and charity, on which they have thrived this many a long year.

[steg]

But do you believe Scotland should be exempt from the new union bill?

[Jackdaw33]

Yes, why not? Before the Act of Union Scotland, although a kingdom, was the equivalent of a banana republic. If they want to do their own thing, let them, as long as it travels no further south than the banks of the Tweed.

[steg]

Two banana republics joined together just made a bigger banana republic

[New Judge]

PR would not have been too beneficial or the SNP, steg.

They polled 4.7% of the vote which would have given them around 30 seats, compared to the 56 they actually achieved. UKIP, by comparison, polled 12.7% of the votes which would have given them around 82 seats compared to the one they achieved.

The SNP are constantly harping on about the share of the vote they got in Scotland. But the General election elects MPs to the UK Parliament, not the Scottish Parish Council. Scotland voted to remain part of the UK and they have 56 MPs to represent their interests. But those 56 should not be entitled to overrule the other 594 just because their interests dictate they should. If they are allowed to opt out of this particular piece of legislation because they believe it does not suit them, what next? Should they opt out of income tax when the UK budget is set?

Personally I wish that the Scots had voted for independence last year. I’d dearly love them to have a repeat run and vote “Yes” for independence. Let them go their own way, make a case to join the EU after the current batch of candidate no-hopers are allowed in and by then the remainder of the UK will hopefully have left. I’m sure the French and Germans will enjoy having another basket case to dominate. But whilst they are part of the UK they should accept the decisions of the UK Parliament.

[steg]

New Judge
PR would not have been too beneficial or the SNP,

Cheers for stating the obvious ;)
But the SNP believe in it enough to have had it in their manifesto that they would vote for PR ,even if it effects the amount of seats they would win

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-snp-would-vote-to-introduce-proportional-representation-at-westminster-nicola-sturgeon-confirms-10223302.html

[Old_Geezer]

If the rest of the Union has to tolerate it I'm unsure why one part should be exempt. It's the same Westminster parliament.