President Cameron: Is federalism coming to the UK?

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n a last ditch effort,the major party leaders effectively took away the Scottish people’s choice to say NO and reduce devolution. When negotiations over the referendum took place, David Cameron vetoed the decision to put devolution max on the ballot paper. He decided that the referendum question would be a simple YES/ NO. This left the NO campaign in difficult territory, they didn’t have a clear consensus unlike the YES campaign. It left a lot of high profile people disagreeing about what they would offer Scotland and what a NO vote would actually mean; while the YES campaign argument was rather cohesive but suffered to answer serious questions.

When the first and only poll showed the YES campaign leading, the whole of the current political class panicked and flew up to Scotland immediately and began their campaigning. The NO campaign were desperate and out emerged Gordon Brown. He wrote a plan for further devolution to be offered if a NO vote occurred – which all major party leaders signed. This plan included all of the powers that would have been given, if there was a devolution max vote. So the Scots then basically had two choices YES or devolution max; they were denied a real choice between true union, devolution and independence. True democracy – as seems to be coming the norm- was once again not present.

Now I do believe if there was a devolution max option that this choice would have been the victor – although my musings and polls aren’t true democracy.

Disillusionment in the current establishment is obviously rife throughout not just Scotland but all of the UK. We need change. It is clear that we are going to solve devolution with devolution; further powers will be given to the current devolved assemblies and perhaps an English parliament.

The last Labour government gave little power to Wales and Northern Ireland, showered power on Scotland and left England in a power vacuum where we did not have full power over our affairs. This has caused massive disparity in the power of democracy and fairness in British society. Something now needs to change, David Cameron has stated that England has been left out and he will rectify the problem. He has set up a cabinet committee and an inquiry to be headed by William Hague to find the best way to deliver true democracy to England, due in November – in accordance with the timetable set by Gordon Brown in “the vow.” There is no doubt a cataclysm running through the British constitution and finally someone is addressing the so-called West Lothian problem, “where is England’s devolution?”

So what form will this devolution take? It would appear that the common consensus is that we will have an English parliament. From a democratic point of view this is a move forward however the logistics and reality would be a nightmare.

We are currently suffering from too much centralised power, even in North England Westminster seems foreign, setting up an English parliament we would just suffer from more of the same.

Scotland has a population of 5.3 million, Wales just over 3 million and England 53 million. All that would happen is more of the same, a media focused on the English parliament and news dominated by the same institution – causing further alienation to those in Wales and Scotland.

Step forward, regional assemblies. Yorkshire and the Humber have a population of 4.8 million (larger than Wales!), a radically different political climate and yet they have no devolution? Instead of a centralised English parliament we need regional assemblies to legislate for each area. Devolution was offered to the North-East 10 years ago but it was struck down because of fears of higher taxes, more politicians and these assemblies having effectively no power. I would argue that this would no longer be the case. The Scottish referendum has set up the precedent of increasing power in devolved assemblies. These assemblies really could aid in revitalising these areas, local news would now be widely read, local people could become empowered and have real sway over their community.

The referendum showed us that political engagement is high when the issue is important to you.

If an MP for your region is not performing he would be voted out, too many MPs in Westminster just move to a safe seat. Let’s take this opportunity to start educating about politics, let 16-17 year olds vote and get the population enthused. Politics should no longer seem so foreign.

Also the worries of more politicians should be no longer! We currently have so many MPs because the strains on their time are large and the UK is highly populated; Westminster is dominated by old men, often not even living in the region they represent. With devolution heading to all areas of the UK we can finally reduce the size and cost of Westminster. The commons however will still play an important role though in legislating in policy areas where power hasn’t been devolved such as defense, education and transport but with a lot less MPs.

Britain it would appear is heading towards a federal state like the United States. Legislation made in small regional assemblies and major policy being dictated by the centre. This in the US has led to gridlock (legislation not getting passed) and failure to deliver on political mandates. Could this be coming to Britain? Could the prime-minister, traditionally the first-among-equals, become effectively a president? Time will tell.

This has to be gotten right. Constitutional change is not an easy thing and there is no quick fix. The time-scale that David Cameron has asked for is idiotic. There are a lot of things to decide upon: regional or English power, what powers to pass down, what about the Lords? Let each party develop their own ideas and let the people decide at the next election. We need true debate among not only politicians but the whole public. After all, Rome – and its constitution – were not built in a day.