Thinking more on the
Newsnight debate - there IS only a few months to go until the Scottish General election ... so I've had a quick look back at my paper diaries for a similar 'four months out' period from the 1997 Referendum and the 1999 first Scottish Parliament elections. Again, accepting my bias, there really is no comparison in atmosphere between what I recall (and have written) of the run-up to those two events and today. I just can't see Independence any day soon??
And, I equally fail to see why no major political Party is arguing strongly for significantly increased powers for the current Scottish Parliament short of outright Independence - just look at what happened to the
Catalan Nationalists when they did just that ;-))
300 years may indeed be a long time, but I really do think the SNP need to play a longer game than 301 if they ever want to achieve their ultimate goal.
300 years may indeed be a long time, but I really do think the SNP need to play a longer game than 301 if they ever want to achieve their ultimate goal.
5 comments:
As a Catalan I was wondering what extra powers would you like to see for the Scottish Parliament. Also, i would like to highlight the fact that CIU is a party that does not stand for the Independence of Catalonia. In Scottish terms, the nationalists would be Esquerra and not CIU.
An interesting point is that in Catalonia every party was looking for new powers, even the Catalan Labour party, with only one exception, the Spanish Tories. Thank you.
Anonymous
Thanks for your comment - that's the point I was trying to make really (obviously not very well!) ... the SNP are not like the CIU ... maybe they should be??
In terms of the extra powers; have a look at these links - taxation is the main difference, but there are others:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,1792096,00.html
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/06/18/catalonia-sun.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5091572.stm
Thanks again for commenting on this.
Andrew
ooops ... you need to add .html on that first link for it to work, sorry.
Different Anon from before. I think the reason why the SNP are not like the CiU is that they belive that Scotland's best interests are served as an Independnet country (as Esquerra does for Catalonia).
You are yourself a devolutionist it seems and appear also to believe in a Union between Scotland and England. If you want a mainstream party to be like CiU then why not the Labor party? The PSC (Catalan Labor) strongly lobbies for greater powers for Catalonia. Yet Labor in Scotland seem adament the status quo is the only option.
Other than taxation powers is there anything else that you think Scotland should have?
Different Anonymous
Exactly - I disagree with (although respect the intellectual integrity) of the SNP/Esquerra position ... and do wonder why more of the mainstream parties haven't followed the CIU line in Scotland?
In particular, I do think the SNP would benefit enormously from following this route, but suspect that only failure to secure power in May will convince them of that argument??
Andrew
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