Economics – We’ll be fine, as
similar countries of similar size are now.
It’s not the point. You’re not
voting on one economic model over another.
Identity – You will still have
whatever identity you want. Scotland is on Britain, as Norway,
Sweden and Finland are in Scandinavia. This is not something in the gift of the
government at Westminster. You’re not voting on identity.
Alex Salmond/SNP - You are not
voting in an Alex Salmond popularity poll or on an SNP manifesto. They are the facilitators of the referendum
and independence but the architects of independent Scotland will be you. And there we get to what we ARE voting on.
Political Governance – Democratic
representation fit for the 21st century. Something which we do not now have.
House of Lords – It is one
hundred and four years since Westminster
passed an Act saying the House of Lords would be determined by popular
vote. Despite Lords reform being in the
manifestos of all three main political parties in the 2010 election, it has
just failed to happen, again. Instead it
is heading for 900 of the unelected with power and influence over
legislature. We might vote out
politicians but it doesn’t mean we can get rid of them, or never vote others
in. They can be appointed for life. And we pay for them, £300 a day expenses just
for showing up, free first class air and rail travel, subsidised fine dining, etc. And if
you’re a peer and you serve time for a criminal offence, no matter, you walk
right back in to the Lords, while elected politicians from the Commons could not
re enter Parliament. An unelected,
unaccountable, privileged elite in governance paid for astronomically by the
people, who have no way of removing any of them.
The direct polar opposite of democracy.
In the Lords there is a symbol of
where power comes from at Westminster. It’s a huge golden throne. The Crown in parliament. That is the great power which can be used to
make great changes and is so intoxicating and corrupting as it swills around
the corridors of Westminster. The royal
prerogative, powers of a medieval monarch, are handed to whomsoever manoeuvres
into Number 10. The powers are not
relative to the mandate the Prime Minister’s party did, or as currently didn’t,
gain at the ballot box, because they’re not democratic powers. They’re a hangover of autocracy, including power
to go to war, write law and appoint ministers without reference to the rest of
the cabinet, your party, parliament and certainly not the people. The blurring of monarchy and democracy hands
out this power and completely fails to hold prime ministers in check. Small wonder this seems to have a detrimental effect on the psyche of many of them.
There is power of veto for the monarch and heir over legislation which affects their private interests, prior to it going through parliament, and the royal exemption from law regarding Freedom of Information legislation means we do not know how many times this has been used nor when.
One instance we do know about of the monarch's power of veto being used to block a private member's bill going through Westminster was when an attempt was made to make the power to go to war one which had to gain parliamentary approval instead of being a royal prerogative power. Elizabeth Windsor blocked the bill at the behest of Tony Blair. An autocratic power used to retain an autocratic power.
