My column for this coming week’s Cornish Guardian
unsurprisingly focuses on the upcoming Scottish independence referendum. It
includes much of the material I have blogged about over the last couple of
days. It will be as follows:
The referendum on Scottish independence, which will take
place on Thursday 18th September, is increasingly forcing politicians to
consider the wider constitutional implications of the vote.
Whatever the result in Scotland ,
I hope it will herald a rethink about the governance of the whole of the UK
David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have published a
joint declaration which promises to “strengthen” the powers of the Scottish
Parliament if the people of Scotland
vote NO. They claim that delivering a “strong Scottish Parliament” will
actually strengthen the basis of the United
Kingdom .
If the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal
Democrats all agree that greater powers for Scotland would be beneficial to the
United Kingdom, they must also accept that the devolution of significant
political and economic powers to other parts of the UK is also appropriate and
would be equally beneficial to one and all.
As the Leader of Mebyon Kernow, I have challenged the
leaders of the three largest London-based parties to support the creation of a
strong Cornish Assembly which, to use their recent words, would also strengthen
the United Kingdom .
And it just happens that the Liberal Democrats have published
a “pre-manifesto” document and sent out a press release claiming they would “campaign
at the next General Election to introduce a Cornish Assembly.” But the relevant
section of the pre-manifesto document confusingly states that the party would
enable “greater devolution of powers from Westminster to
councils or groups of councils working together (for example to a Cornish
Assembly).”
For Labour, Ed Miliband has declared that: “Further
devolution is coming to Wales, and Scotland’s example will lead the
way in changing how we are governed in England too … with extensive
new devolution to local government from Cornwall to Cumbria.”
I am extremely disappointed that both the Liberal Democrats
and Labour are couching talk about devolution within the context of local
government. We need to be more ambitious than that for Cornwall .
We need a new democratic deal on a par with Scotland
and Wales – a
legislative Cornish Assembly – not just a few more additional powers for local
government.
But I am also disappointed by the attitude of local
Conservatives such as Sarah Newton MP. When asked about the creation of an Assembly
– for a constituent part of the UK
– why does she feel the need to scaremonger that such devolution would lead to
the break up of the United Kingdom ,
when David Cameron is claiming the opposite?
1 comment:
Well said dick. They all seem to be clutching at straws. New Labour will be worst hit when the sxots gain independance. Im hoping for a landslide victory it will give more faith to other counties to talk of independance. London centric corporate lead decisions are why this country is in such a mess.
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