WEST LOTHIAN IS THE NATIONAL QUESTION

RMTnews :: july/august 2006 :: www.rmt.org.uk 34 I t seems ‘the West Lothian question’ is never out of the news for long. The now famous conundrum posed by Tam Dalyell the former Labour MP for West Lothian [hence its name] asks why, in ‘post devolutionary’ Britain, Scottish MP’s at Westminster should be able to vote on English education, health, housing and transport matters for example, but English MP’s have no similar influence over these issues north of the border? I must confess whenever I hear mention of ‘the West Lothian question’ I can’t help recall the comedian at the Edinburgh Festival a couple of years back who suggested the real question Dalyell meant to ask was ‘Who the f*** wants to live in Bathgate anyway?’ The original, however, has been posed afresh by Tory MP’s at Westminster recently whose clear motive it seems to me is to unravel the devolution referendum of 1997. This strategy contains many a risk for those keen to hold onto the ‘United Kingdom’. A devolved parliament for Scotland was the least concession defenders of the union could offer to hold back the drive for independence. It remains to be seen whether devolution will, in fact ,sate the desire for independence as George, now Lord Robertson, originally forecast, or whether, in the view of Dalyell himself, establishing the Holyrood Parliament meant full blown independence became inevitable for Scots. What is agreed is that behind the ‘democratic deficit’ which existed in Scotland for the best part of 20 years, where Scotland voted Labour but had a Tory government foisted on us, lay a deep and profound sense of injustice. Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s we were governed by a party with virtually no support here which treated Scotland like a test laboratory for all sorts of hideous experiments, most notably the poll tax, introduced, lets not forget, one year before the rest of the UK. And the Tories solution now to the West Lothian question? That Scottish MP’s should be banned from participating in Westminster debates. Defensive Labour MP’s respond saying it would mean two different classes of MP. For me the question arises because devolution represents unfinished business. All decisions affecting Scotland should in my view be debated and decided upon here at Holyrood, in our national parliament. Most Scots agree that had we the power to decide, then no Scots troops would currently be fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. Should pro-independence parties win a majority in next year’s Holyrood elections we are all agreed that a referendum would be held immediately to decide the issue. Equally, the more the Tories look like winning the next Westminster elections, the greater the likelihood of a constitutional crisis. It seems inevitable that a conflict would erupt between governments at Holyrood under pressure to follow one political course and Westminster set on quite another. As we approach the 300th anniversary of the highly unpopular Act of Union when Scotland and England were first politically joined together, it is the national question itself with all its complexities that may well dominate the news rather than the relatively abstract ‘West Lothian’ one. By Colin Fox MSP National Convenor, Scottish Socialist Party WEST LOTHIAN IS THE NATIONAL QUESTION