Will devolution lead to the break up of the UK?

        Another key issue to consider is the implications the break up of the UK would have on the states involved and on the world, taking Scotland as an example, every year it’s revenue going to Westminster still equates to 13% less than the £20 billion given to Scotland every year by Westminster. Put simply, the country does not earn enough to sustain itself and when the oil in the North Sea runs out its resources will be almost completely diminished. A country that’s run entirely on taxation and oil with no major exports is not sustainable in the modern world economy. As things stand the UK has a strong position in the world today, it holds a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and in the year 2000 Britain had the 4th largest Gross National Product and GDP of any country, (Behind the USA, Japan and Germany). It seems unlikely, especially in the euro skeptic Britain of today that devolution would develop to the point where we abandon our economic position in the world and become separate states.

        While unlikely, full independence is still heavily pushed for my parties such as Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party, and in their defence there are some very good arguments for further devolution or independence in individual circumstances. The drive from Orkney Island in the north of Scotland is over 700 miles from Westminster, even with the advances in modern communication technology and travel, it is insane to presume that a Parliament of representatives in Westminster, looking out for the good of the UK as a whole would have the very specific interests of the inhabitants of the Orkney islands in mind. By allowing Scotland it’s independence it could delegate regional governments more power to help regulate specific matters that concern constituents while at the same time reducing the burden on Westminster over small ‘trivial’ matters, best left to regional government. As I mentioned before, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, these are all nations with their own cultures and heritage, and it would not be right to govern them in a unitary fashion, as it would not allow for regional and cultural differences. This level of governance could be achieved through further devolution and would not require complete Scottish independence that would end up breaking up the United Kingdom.

        While there are many distinct advantages to having national parliaments in each state, or even regional governments there are many negative factors that must be taken into consideration, the Welsh Assembly costs over £40 million pounds a year to run and only has secondary legislative powers while the Scottish Parliament building opened three years late, ten times over budget costing £431 million for the building alone. So extra cost is one major issue to consider, but so also is the added bureaucracy, by adding another layer of government you are adding another layer of paperwork and seemingly needless bureaucracy, especially in Wales where all important acts passed must be ratified by Parliament anyway.

The big question that also needs to be considered is whether having these devolved national parliaments is doing the job they set out to do, apart from the obvious tasks of providing a more local and focussed government and reducing the stress on Westminster the main purpose of the devolved governments was as an appeasement policy to nationalist party’s. According to Scotland’s first minister and leader of the SNP, Alex Salmond, 75% of Scottish people want a referendum on the future of Scotland and two thirds of those people want the Scottish government to have more power and/or independence. In this particular instance the Scottish Parliament, meant to quell the SNP’s desire for independence has actually ended up spurring on their ambitions.

Resentment is also a major issue in the UK where devolved powers are not equal as they would be if we adopted a system of federalism. The biggest issue it seems is that by allowing devolved autonomous government in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland we have not provided a Parliament specific to England. This lack of representation leads to the famous ‘West Lothian Question’. In Westminster now MP’s no longer vote on Scottish affairs, but if Parliament was to pass an act that affected the NHS in England then Scottish members of Parliament would have the right to vote on the issue, without the English MP’s having the right to vote on Scottish issues, creating a conflict of interests and a resentment that Scottish MP’s are making decisions on things that don’t involve their constituents or the area they were elected to represent. Then of course you have the resentment issues over the privileges of living in a devolved state as opposed to England, because of devolution in Scotland, Scottish constituents are entitled to University without tuition fee’s, free personal care for the elderly, they were the first to feel the benefits of the smoking ban in 2005 and allowed ramblers the right to roam. All of these privileges are subsidised by the UK taxpayer, not the Scottish taxpayer, which leads to the question, why should an average English taxpayer be paying for Scottish teenagers to go to university when their own children have to pay over £3000 a year for the privilege. However this resentment runs both ways, and without devolution Scottish constituents might argue, why should a Parliament hundreds of miles away composed of primarily English and Welsh MP’s be voting on issues that affect Scotland, and vote in a manner that might not be in the best interests of Scotland.

Another issue I haven’t really touched upon is that of Northern Ireland, as well as the argument over it becoming a separate state on it’s own it also has the unique factor of having the Republic of Ireland and unionists wanting Ireland to be re-joined, so Northern Irish Independence would be very much in the interests of unionists and Northern Irish nationalists. Another possible theory over the future of the UK would be that instead of a complete break up of the UK, we might experience a partial break up, in the coming years if the British economy continues to falter it might seem like a prudent course for Northern Ireland to merge with the Republic of Ireland to re-strengthen it’s economy and continue as a member of the EU. With Wales on the other hand it seems incredibly unlikely it will separate from the UK as it does not have the population or resources to survive as a nation on its own.

Within the UK another discussed possibility is that of complete regional government, leaving Westminster purely to focus on the bigger picture, this has already been en-acted in London with the creation of the Greater London Authority but the idea has not caught on as when asked, “Should there be an elected assembly for the North East region?” 77.93% of voters affected voted No (with a turnout of 47.05%). Cornwall as a region also wants it’s own independent government from Westminster but again I believe it is unlikely that it will ever achieve this level of autonomy as a small county.

While there are clearly cultural divides within the nation I believe that a lot of the problems are caused by the issue of false patriotism, to quote George Bernard Shaw “Patriotism is the conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it”.  In the modern economic climate it is necessary that the United Kingdom remains intact to avoid economic and political collapse. However, I also believe that devolution is a necessary reform to appease the nationalists who would otherwise (and still do, in lesser numbers) call for independence. It seems implausible and foolhardy to separate any nation of the United Kingdom, but it is in theory possible that it could happen, I believe the most likely situation would be the Independence of Northern Ireland followed by its immediate annexation of it into the Republic of Ireland. I strongly believe that devolution is a compromise to independence and I do not believe that the government’s policies towards devolution will lead to the break up of the United Kingdom.

Bibliography

 - Understanding Politics, Moyra Grant, 2nd edition, 1999, Publisher – Stanley Thomas, ISBN 0748711783
- British Politics in Focus – Roy Bentley, Alan Dobson, Peter Dorey, David Roberts, ISBN 1902796780 – 2nd edition, published by causeway press

Guardian Article on Welsh Devolution

 

 

Government of Yukon official website

Australian Parliament website
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British Parliament article on the act of Union 1707

 

Economist Article on the cost of Scottish Devolution
 

UN Website – Security Council members
 

GDP and GNP statistics

BBC news articles
 

Official SNP Website – policy’s on Independance
 

Paper for ESRC Devolution Conference, London, December 2005
“Barnett and the West Lothian Question : no nearer to solutions than when the Devolution Programme started” – Iain McLean, Nuffield College, Oxford

British Parliament Article on devolution http://www.parliament.uk/devolved/devolved.cfm

Official statistics on North East Referendum http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/loc04/region.htm

George Bernard Shaw quotation

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