I get queries about what the constitutional implications are in the event of a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum in Scotland. What will happen to MPs sitting for Scottish seats? What are the implications for peers from Scotland? People appear to think there are definitive answers. My answer is to read the report of the Constitution Committee of the Lords on this very subject, published at the end of the last session. You can read it here. It’s a succinct and valuable review. In essence, what it shows is that it is a case of negotiate and legislate. Things will not happen automatically. Only once agreement is reached can measures be passed to give effect to the conclusions.
Lord Norton,
I cannot help but recall that many of my ancestors felt in the 1850’s that their civil society was in jeopardy in part by the provocation of agents and criminals from the Northern states as well as other forces. They organized committees which corresponded, protested and rode about with cannons on occasion demand those found guilty of a long list of crimes leave their State of Louisiana or be flogged and if not leaving again be executed. Similar things happened in Virginia at Harper’s Ferry and similar responses occurred. After tthe election of Lincoln in 1860 the Southern States resolved to act on doctrines long espoused by Calhoun, Davis and others which had some precedent in New England’s actions on two occasions. Each United State first seceded and then they formed a separate Union and sent commissioners to the District of Columbia to pay for federal property and a share of federal debt. These commissioners who were never seen by the United States also were one with naval officers who universally abandoned their ships to a likely enemy and army units mostly left pieces abroad in Union hands.
The Union response was to burn these states largely to rubble in a war to create a new compact of national political life previously unknown here and kill a portion of the population equal to ten million Americans today. While a French Prince (de Polignac) fought near my home under an Acadian General and took over from him at his death in the last major Confederate Victory at the battle of Mansfield or Sabine Crossings the Southern States largely struggled alone. issuing in vast poverty and social collapse in many areas after the war. The closest to a national exception was the British who, despite political differences with the Confederacy, nearly went to war on its side when C.S.A. diplomats were kidnapped from British custody. It is not at all clear that had the South not issued more hurried and radical efforts to gain British aid they might not have done so. But while the Confederate officers and their foes had conquered Mexico and many had conquered an American-Indian brigade here or there the truth is they were squeamish and flabbergasted with the reality of British capacity to project force from England, Scotland, Wales, Canada and the Caribbean in those days. Eager for recognition, guns, military observers, naval bottoms and advice they could not fathom asking full scale alliance, attempting (as New England once had) to enter the Empire again or even staging joint operations with the size forces quickly mobilized in the British exercises and so the opportunity for their political survival was lost. Had the British interest occurred once all the slaughter and huge mobilizations of the war had already happened they may have had a different response. But by then Britain had committed to a different policy.
It is with this period in mind that I view your own efforts to deal with this possible disunion. I know the pound and crown may provide options not comparable to our struggles 150 odd years ago. Yet it is also clear that mass fratricide is very far from the minds and design of the British. Such things still occur in Iraq, Ukraine and elsewhere to a degree less intense till now than in old Dixie but seem precluded in Britain. That is in my own view at least quite admirable.
Since in relationship to this planet Earth’s future,
and to that of the Human Longest-Term Ciivilisational Needs upon it,
National Constitutions are way out-of-date, and are increasingly driving us down an insidiously huge slippery slope into Self- as well as most other Earthlife – extinction,
the Question really is
“Which nation will become the first to orientate its Constitution to the longest-term future
and thereby both survive and thrive,,.
and be bio-environmentally more Life-supportive,
England
or
the new Scotland ?
The way the muddled and corrupted English Mind is going in Werstminster and Buckingham Palace, it appears to me that a Scotland Nation-State [*] is the way to go.
{*} all Nation-States are one way or another “interdependent” now, anyway.
LN: The Scottish people should have received a copy of this document you have put here long before now. They are voting blind.
However, the big rot we read about the Scots no longer having the British sterling is a nasty smelling red herring. What exactly does it mean?
The Irish Punt, their currency since 997, then later adopting the Euro by choice, has not altered the people of Ireland’s way of life in comparison to ours one iota. What they struggle with has nothing to do with their direct currency. It is as with us all, debt, and the currency of choice being worthless. And that goes for the rest of us sufferers who were persuaded by bent banking to go along with their heist. Therefore, the Scots will not see a worse outcome with a ‘Yes’ vote than if they stay tied to the Westminster gang who are pulling the most sinister tactics to keep them close in. And what crosses my mind as I read the bull written by a variety of stooges, set up to convince these people they need our backing to stay afloat, are the tactics used which resembles the street corner pimp as he slaps his ‘ho’ on the weekly drive by, which disgusts.
The Scottish people have been threatened in a way I find staggering and for what exactly? What is Westminster afraid of? That is where they should put all their collective focus. Why would Westminster go to such lengths to keep hold of a part of the country that was previously claimed, and still is, that they are nothing but a burden of useless eaters, costing more money than they give over? Which we, the English, want to ultimately hang onto at all costs because of the goodness in our hearts toward them….. Oh, pleeeeease. I can’t stand it.
The reality has to be very different and the canny Scots must do the research on their own behalf. As, this is the most important decision they will have to make in their lifetime. To have to choose between the freedom of adulthood in their state, or, the perpetual childhood of servitude. The parents in Westminster clinging like ogres to the reigns….. Or, the more electrifying adult analogy of the pimp, collecting the nights takings to spend on his gaudy suits, diamond studded rings and flashy cars, (bank bail outs, nuclear arms, foreign bribes called aid) whilst he leaves her barely able to stand from exhaustion on that corner.
What is really worrying Westminster is, the Labour party will lose 41 MP’s, the Queen will not necessarily remain their ‘constitutional’ monarch, should they decide they want a republic. And how much will it be costing Westminster to lose what Scotland provides by simply handing over its all to be divided by those who deem it fit to so divide. Just look at this offer of; we will release you from the bedroom tax and universal benefit requirements if you stay in bed with us. Then just as quick, Redwood back tracking with his condemnation at such promises. How would that be accepted by the poverty stricken of England and Wales. Scotland getting special treatment is just not equal. So, now, they have NATO, the Banks, the Corporations, etc., all threatening their abuse and desertion should freedom raise its ugly head.
That in itself should open the eyes of those smart people in the north. Because all those collective pimps are desperate to keep you on their streets, you have to know it stinks, so get off your stumps and out of it as fast as you can muster.
Here is the view of Noam Chomsky on the vote for Scottish independence. His view is a stepping stone in the process of what to expect from a, Yes, on Friday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7HpE4k5JLc