I don't want devolved powers

[Kendodd]

I want us all to be the same, all pay the same rate of income tax and all get the same level of services. Do you remember the so called NHS postcode lottery, won't it just be like that? Another layer of government, with all its related costs and for what? So that we can have even more unequal access to services. The only possible small benefit that I can see would be the money put into the local economy if they site an english parliament iup north.

aibu?

I agree Scottish MPs have no business voting on issues that don't affect their constituents. Same applies to welsh MPs too, according to that article. It does make you wonder where we'd be with both PFI & tuition fees if this had been addressed with the devolved institutions had been set up originally.

That should be 'when' not with.

I don't understand this push for localism.

Because its happening already, but not in a positive way for many regions. The transport spend per head, up here in the Northeast is £5 per head. In London it's £2,500 per head. That is a ridiculous discrepancy. People in suits are sitting in Westminster bullshitting about what a fabulous investment HS2 will be for the North. Billions of pounds spent to shave a few minutes off train travel times to Birmingham, more like, and maybe as far as Leeds. It'll do nothing for us up here. The money would be better spent on fixing existing services around the country. Local train services up here use 30 year old trains. Cast offs from other regions. They constantly break down and they're like cattle trucks.

An "English" assembly would have no interest in fixing these discrepancies, btw.

I was wondering about this. The panic offering of last week wasn't an option before then and has presumably been cobbled together in 5 minutes. But nobody actually voted on it.
Politicians redesigning the process to involve more layers of government? I'm not keen.

And what happens if we have say a Labour UK govt but a Tory English majority? Who has control? What would the UK parliament do apart from defence?

the whole devolution thing was cobbled together to pacify the Welsh and Scots, hence a patchwork of unequal compromises. start from scratch with one central govt allocating resources equally to all regions/areas
and hope ukip doesn't take advantage of the mess we have now

Our democracy is broken and discredited. There seems to have been ongoing dabbling and knee jerk fixes. Cobbling together regional assemblies to placate the English in an effort to provide a fig leaf for that pesky West Lothian question won't wash as others have pointed out we will just have another layer of expensive inept politicians. I believe John Major may have said that if the answer is more politicians, you're asking the wrong question. Answers on a postcard please.

Regarding the tuition fee vote, 5 Scottish MPs chose to abstain (one of them the lone Tory MP). The 10 LibDems voted against and the SNP (who by party tradition do not normally vote on English issues but did so on this occasion because they had such strong view against fees) also voted against. It was Labour MPs supporting their own policies.

The West Lothian question needs solving.

And part (a small part admittedly) of that bill did apply to Scotland, so Scottish MPs were entitled to vote on it if they wished.

I agree OP. I'm in Scotland and totally over-represented. What good does it do? The roads still need repaired and don't get done, the planning system is still awful, all the things done by the public sector are done terribly badly.

Why encourage MPs still further? So many of them have no relevant qualifications and experience, and only go into politics because it appeals to them as a career. There should be a rule that they should have 5 or even 10 years proper work experience outside politics before they go in.

Take my local MSP for instance. He came round to my door to canvass (annoying in itself), so I asked him to describe the legislative process in the Scottish Parliament and compare it with that at Westminster. He couldn't, although it is a question anyone with a school qualification in modern studies could get right. So I asked him to name the 3 organs of government generally associated with the tripartite division of powers, and why that division of powers was important. Again, he couldn't answer, and couldn't get away fast enough.

He is an Arts graduate with no experience in a job outside politics in his life.

YABU

I am Scottish. Scotland has been better since devolution, that's why it's popular. Before devolution Scottish interests were really not high up on the agenda- there was a single department "The Scottish Office" dealing with all matters relating to Scotland. Run out of Westminster.

It seems some people are incredibly keen for a race to the bottom- when they see something that Scotland/Wales/NI does differently that they'd like they want to remove it, rather than try to obtain it for themselves.

I too am in favour of "Only English MPs having a say on English matters", but it will require more changes and thought than many seem to realise. One example: at present the block grants to Scotland (and I think Wales and NI too) are effected by choices made for England(+/- Wales, depending on what it is). E.g. if England were, for instance, to vote to spend less on health or education- both of which are devolved areas- then there would be a cut in the amount of funding Scotland would receive in that area. Except that MPs outside England would have had no say in the spending cut, which isn't right. So, what would have to happen is de-coupling of the block grant from English spend. Which is possible, just not straightforward.

I also see the anger than Scotland gets more per head than England. It's true Scotland spends more than England/Wales on the NHS. But when you look into it further it is, again, more complicated than it first looks. For instance, South-East England gets far more spent on transport infrastructure (per head) than Northern England and Scotland. But that doesn't get shown in the calculations of "per head spend".

I am Scottish. Scotland has been better since devolution,

Yes, so why not have 'better' for the whole of the UK?

If the answer is the English/Welsh/NI want tuition fees and prescription charges, we don't or at least everybody I know doesn't.

The whole idea is a massive mess. We are still one country, why shouldn't we all have the same access to services. Oh and I have to say that I'm not against Scotland, or parts of Scotland or parts of England etc have more spent on them per head, maybe they need more spent on them per head because they have specific needs, like an older population. I am against real inequality in provision of services like education or health care.

IMO more devolved powers = more inequality.

I was taking to DH the other day and saying we should more to Scotland two years before our eldest goes to university. We have three children if they all go to university, even if they only do a three year course we will save them/us £81,000. Plus we would be getting older so might need more prescriptions or even social care ourselves.