Halfway house

Gordon Brown likes to quote the Bible. I wonder if he’d like to be told that “as you sow, so shall you reap” exactly describes his party’s position on the constitutional crisis which it has created. Because Holyrood is entirely 
Labour’s creature.

Holyrood was Labour’s answer to Scottish nationalism. It was never intended to benefit the people of Scotland. That flim-flam fooled nobody. It was always about Labour’s majority. But now the West Lothian Question has come home to roost, the sham is obvious. Everyone can see how unfair it is that the English have little say in Scottish affairs while Scots vote on English matters.

Holyrood is a halfway house between independence and unionism. It’s a festering sore on the unionist ideal and a shabby compromise from the nationalist point of view.

A truly United Kingdom is a co-operative enterprise, not one where one part of the country competes with the other. But at last the English have woken up and are asking for a square deal. And the funny thing is that few north of the Border object to them getting fair treatment.

The referendum has pleased no-one. Not the nationalists, who are as determined as ever to pursue their own selfish ends. Not the unionists, who are in open and hostile disagreement with each other purely for their own party political interests. And not the people of Scotland, or indeed of the whole of Britain, who watch our foolish politicians with an increasing sense of helpless bewilderment.

For everyone’s sake, Westminster, get your act together.

Robert Veitch

Paisley Drive

Edinburgh