The Scottish Government

Re. #283
Currently Scotland has two masters: Westminster and Brussels. With independence Scotland will be able to deal with Brussels directly - cutting out the London "middleman".

When England gets Independence, can they PLEASE keep Malcolm Rifkind??!!

Alasdair Martin says his wish for an 'independent' Scotland has nothing to do with hating the English.

Of course I believe him; my question is if you don't like being ruled from London by a Scots PM & cabinet full of other Scots why are so many SNP so keen on being ruled from Brussels, where 'we' (wether 'we' be Britain, Scotland or whatever) are ALWAYS in the minority.

I believe that the only way to preserve the sovereignty of all of us currently in the UK is by maintaining the Union that served us so well for more than 300 years.

278. Ellis Sims - Gosport

I will state clearly that I am completely in favour of Scotland ending her dependence on Whitehall.

But just one issue I'd like to raise; which areas of policy are MPs representing Scottish seats able to vote on that their English honourable friends are not?

My understanding is that Scottish MPs are barred from voting on devolved matters in the same way that English, Welsh or N.Irish MPs are too.

As a matter of interest, is there not a Kensington and Chelsea Question?

Eg Did London MPs such as Sir Malcolm Rifkind have any say over whether Ken Livingstone's(that old West Lothian connection!)London Assembly introduced, say, The Congestion Charge?

Should Greater London MPs like Sir Malcolm be barred from voting on non-London issues?

Similar question for Welsh and N.Irish seats?

scotland has been part of the brit empire for longer than we care to remember,so why not become independant and rule our own country with the respect that it deserves.we need to keep and control our precious oil reserves and not listen to a word alex salmon says.

Rather than focusing on independance this government should focus on 1/ concil tax 2/ Continual Housing Failures 3/ Proper training and apprenticeships 4/ Enforcement of minimum wage 5/ Increase of minimum wage 6/ Immigration rather than open the doors for others proper pay and training for our own first 7/ Class sizes 8/ Security 9/ clean fuel including possible nuclear energy 10/increased Policing. This list could go on before i even think about independence or not, we have to many problems like council tax were my flat is put in the same band as someone who has double glazing cavity wall insulation proper door security etc etc yet i,m obliged to pay the same and if a true value was put on my flat you wouldn,t pay 30 bob(£1.50)for it . On housing we have too many houses not fit for purpose in the 21st century.My flat in McNair st G32 has no double glazing no gas fire, (just a lump in the wall from the shoddy council plasterer)single radiator in corner of each room inneficient so this early in the winter my weekly fuel bills double and it will get worse, no cavity wall insulation, kitchen and bathroom units falling apart,blocked gutters, cracks in ceilings, skirting boards missing, and no storage none of which will be repaired if flat to be upgraded although still been waiting nearly 2 years on results of feezability study which is incompetence at best, this government and the previous one are and have let the scottish people down in this area and need to force the gha/lho to get there finger out or instead of increasing rents they should be forced to reduce them continually until improvements are made it is shocking that in this day and age we have people staying in hovells. WE should also concentrate in training ,proper enforcement of minimum wage, immigration, increase in minimum wage these are all linked in the sense that Mr Salmond wants to bring in more people to do the jobs we we won't do, is it not a fact that if these jobs actually paid a decent wage more of us would do them eg. If you worked in a nursing home and i apologise for being blunt would you change clean and wipe another adults mess for the current minimum wage i know i wouldn,t i would ask you to simply think about the jobs you say we won,t do then ask yourself how much an hour you would want to do that job, and instead of foreign plumbers and brickies increase apprenticeships and more adult training in these fields would get our own people back into jobs with proper pay, how many times have you been in your local and knowing that we all talk to staff too many admit they may not get paid the minimum wage or its made up with tips this is shocking and should be made illegal we need proper inspectors going in and out of these places doing spot checks.We also need to increase minimum for a simple reason when on £55 a week benefit asking someone to work 40 hours a week on minimum wage means that at the end of the week after tax, national, insurance, paying rent,council tax etc etc you are left in some cases with less than the £55 a week benefit so how do you make it worth while to get someone on benefit into work simple make it worth while. I could go on and on but in essence is independance more important to me than how i'm going to get the extra money to heat my house because of gha neglect then no independence is not even on my list i care about more about social injustices and constant incompetence from Government but mainly local organisations like GHA/LHO.

I strongly believe that Scotland could thrive if it was independent and become a great success story, with the current situation of devolution there is very little that the Scottish parliament can do for Scotland. It angers me that people do not believe that we can sustain our on economy. The only reason that Westminster does not want Scotland independent is because it would cause England problems such as having to find somewhere else to dump its waste and loosing control over Scotlands natural resources such as north sea oil and gas from Scotland, it has nothing to with do with claiming we are better together than apart. There are huge benifits to the Scottish people if they were independent. We would be able to pass legislation on issues which would actually make a differnce to the Scottish people, gain a share of our oil and gas and most importantly give Scotland a voice within the EU and with other countries.

Replying to the question on devolution, this is why the Conservatives are suggesting that only English MP's sit in on ONLY ENGLISH laws, without the need for a seperate Parliament whihc would waste EVEN more taxpayers money, while that money could go towards better things.

Have to take umbridge with that last comment Mike King. I want English Independence, not because I hate the Scottish, or anyone else, but because I love England. I'm sure the majority of Scots want independence because they love Scotland. And why not? And for any Scots who do hate England, after independence, I forsee less cross border resentment, from both sides.

275. Mike King - Birmingham - "At least be honest & admit Scottish independence is often no more than hatred of the English dressed up to look something more grand."

This sort of comment does a disservice to those nationalists, like me, who have nothing against the English. Scottish Independence is about Scotland's future, not about England, although I can see benefits for both nations.

I read a lot of comment and commentary on the broader constitutional debate and to be honest I read more anti-Scottish comment (indeed, been targeted by it) than anything else, although I believe that to be as a result of in imbalance with the current devolution settlement and the resultant "West Lothian" and "English" questions.

I think that Scottish Nationalism has matured beyond the sort of narrow and bigoted point-of-view that you suggest. After all, what is the point? Those that still harbour such views are surely a minority and an embarrassment.