Lecture 5. The West Lothian Question

Lecture five dealt with the intensely joyful and extremely intriguing topic of local government. (Feel free to go back on facebook now...)

I learned the differences between Whitehall 'civil servants' and Town Hall 'executive officers'. In short, Whitehall runs the country (subject to parliament) and the Town Hall runs counties and cities.

The main area of interest for me within the lecture was the issue of the West Lothian Question.

According to Kingdom the question is:

"Should Scottish MPs at Westminster be permitted to debate policy for England, while English MPs are excluded from the Scottish Parliament? Should Scotland maintain its existing over-representation at Westminster?"

How is it fair that Scottish MPs have a say in important issues in Westminster, but English MPs cannot influence law in Scotland? I don't think it is. Surely it would make much more sense for England to have a seperate parliament where the Scots couldn't stick their whiskey soaked red roses in?

Or maybe let the Scots have their independence. They have moaned about the English for many years now. (Mel Gibson has done his bit to stir things up with great success!) The SNP had drafted a bill to stage a referendum on Scottish independence but that doesn't have the legs to take off according to the Guardian.

Alex Salmond's Scottish independence referendum bill 'dead in the water'

So it doesn't look like the Scottish folk will be getting their independence anytime soon. And don't we all get along too well to split up?!