It made it to the news but, typically, the Scottish Raj wasn’t mentioned again.
Alistair Darling, MP for a Scottish Constituency, today said that there was “no demand” for longer opening hours on Sundays. And yet all the while, Alistair Darling’s home country (which has devolution) has no Sunday-trading restrictions. Now, I know it is a topic about which people get heated, but let’s all concentrate on the fact that an MP with executive powers can make this decision even though, through a fault of the constitution since Labour’s 1998 meddling, none of his constituents will be effected in any way.
Worse still, the Conservative Party’s preferred ’solution’ of English Votes on English Matters fails entirely to deal with this!
More news at the Campaign for an English Parliament’s blog.
July 6th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
“no demand”? I hate/love it when politicians say that. Charlie reckons “no demand” for EP, Darling says “no demand” for Sunday opening.
Here. Me. I demand it, I want it, and in fact my life would be much easier if it was an option, I drive past a supermarket every Sunday evening, it’s perfect for shopping, but at any other time I have to go out of my way to an inferior store. Ah well.
Besides, I worked 2pm until 1.30am last Sunday, and am likely to do so again this Sunday. This atheist doesn’t think Sunday has been “special” for years, I want to choose my days off, thanks very much…
July 6th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
This Scot sympathises, as usual, with your justified gripe
However, this whole “there isn’t any call for it” is a quintessentially bizarre British way of looking at the way services of any kind are provided - I’m not old enough to know how this country was before the last war (WWII, that is), but since the socialists got their hands on this country in its immediate aftermath the whole concept of service has gone out of the window. I’ve lost count of the number of times some shop assistant (or some apparatchik such as the fool Darling!) has said “there isn’t any demand for that” when I’ve asked for somethnig that would be perfectly normal in New York or Hong Kong, or indeed Paris or Rome. Whilst I usually have much better things to do with my time than to go to Tesco at 11pm on a Sunday evening, it is good that I can do so up here; the only thing I can’t do is buy wine (or indeed gin or whisky) before midday on a Sunday - mind you, all the real alcoholics are still in church at that time
July 7th, 2006 at 1:56 am
Thank you Bill, I continue to be refreshed to hear you say that when all the media shoves down our throats when anything even remotely related to Anglo-Scottish relations is in the news, is Daily Mail columnists and SNP representatives…
Sunday is no different to any other day of the week and 85% of employees don’t work a Monday to Friday 9-5 job (I do, and I’m grateful).
July 8th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
Err, he can legislate to change it just as has always been done. As usual Tories are telling lies about this issue: no MP is barred from voting to change the Sunday shopping regulations in any part of the UK. Parliament’s powers have not been diminished one iota.
July 9th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
I’m sorry Claran but you are simply wrong on this. Normally, in politics, there are shades of grey and starting positions and assumptions which allow each side to make a case and for the people to decide which they agree with. But on this, you are wrong.
Executive power is held by the party with the majority of seats in the British Parliament. That means, whatever people say, the English cannot have a minirity administration in the same way as Scotland can. During the 80s the Scots complained that they consistently voted against the ruling party and now that problem has been solved for them by devolution.
But worse, England is now subject to wholly unelected people making laws.
Any MP representing a Scottish seat is elected to represent his constituents at the UK level. That means, for Scottish constituents, they will never be effected by any devolved policies that his MP later votes upon. That is obviously wrong no matter who you are.
As if to rub salt in the wound, Scottish (not their nationality, mind, just their constituency’s location) MPs have had the casting vote on issues effecting English school children, English hospitals etc.
And now (again) a Scottish Cabinet Minister is making policy which none of his constituents are ever going to consider when deciding to vote for him. Worse, his policies are the exact opposite of what his own party in coalition has in Scotland.
Why should Scottish OAPs get free public transport throughout Scotland? Why should Welsh NHS patients have free prescriptions (even in English Hospitals) and why should Scottish (and EU) students have free university education while English students must pay?
The answer to all these questions is devolution. Devolution has delivered, at least in some measure, what it set out to achieve in Scotland and Wales. But what has not been considered is that England is no different to Scotland and Wales except that it is the location of the UK Parliament.
Now, why, for goodness sake shouldn’t England have devolution too?
Yes, as you say, the UK Parliament has the power to change Sunday shopping hours in Scotland too, but they won’t for two reasons: Scotland would become more separatist if the UK Parliament started overruling its Parliament and because it would damage Labour’s already shaky position in the Scottish Parliament.
The Tories are wrong on this issue, but not in the way you imply. Actually their policy is insufficiently radical and lacks a key ingredient: logic.
July 9th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
[…] Claran has commented on my last post and, to clear up any confusion, I copy it here for you all: […]