The annual conference of Plaid Cymru starts tomorrow. Here their leader, Leanne Wood, talks about the Scottish referendum and devolution, questions EVEL (English votes for English Laws) and opposes the evils of austerity. She is interviewed by Socialist Resistance SR: You were a very high profile and active supporter of the Yes campaign in Scotland. […]
Posts under ‘British Regions/Nations’
Why energy policy should be devolved
Oct 22nd, 2014 by Dave Watson.Devolving energy policy would tidy up the often conflicting mix of devolved and reserved powers and enable Scotland to develop new approaches to energy policy. At present energy is a largely reserved matter to Westminster. Specific reservations in Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998 include the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity; the […]
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A Welsh view of Scotland’s ‘No’ vote: the end, or the end of the beginning?
Oct 7th, 2014 by Nick Davies.‘Settled for a generation’ was the confident assertion of the metropolitan commentariat after Scotland’s referendum resulted in a bigger than expected margin of defeat for independence. An independent Scotland may be off the agenda in the immediate term but we should remember Zhou En-lai’s famous remark about the effects of the French revolution: “too early […]
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Greater devolution for a fairer Scotland
Oct 6th, 2014 by Dave Watson.If the referendum result tells us anything, it’s that most people living in Scotland want a big change in how we are governed so that we can can seriously address poverty and inequality. This means that further devolution has to be more than just tinkering at the edges. As Lord Smith started his work with […]
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I voted Yes, but I won’t be joining the SNP
Oct 2nd, 2014 by Guest.I am a Labour Party member who voted Yes in the independence referendum, but I won’t be joining the SNP or any other party. I voted Yes for a complex array of reasons and it was a close call. Partly out of despair over Westminster politics, not just current Tory policies, I expect them to […]
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Cameron rats on early devolution & is nakedly partisan to secure Tory interest
Sep 21st, 2014 by Michael Meacher.So much for ‘The Vow’ agreed by all three party leaders just a week ago in the spirit of the union together. It is rapidly unravelling in a welter of uncertainty over what the ‘extensive new powers’ for Scotland will be, the timetable for their delivery, and above all by their being linked to party […]
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Referendum fallout: what next for politics?
Sep 21st, 2014 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.It’s been a huge week, a profound week for British politics. What does it all mean for the parties and movements jostling for position in the referendum’s aftermath? As far as Westminster is concerned, a bullet has been dodged. There is a cloying desire for a return to business as usual, and just as many […]
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After the referendum, now the backlash
Sep 20th, 2014 by Mike Phipps.The panic is over. The neck and neck opinion polls that led the Westminster party leaders to make uncosted promises of greater devolution to Scotland and guarantees of bigger grant funding from the centre have unravelled within hours of the result. The “vow” to which party leaders committed, offering extensive new powers to the Scottish […]
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Scotland: Now comes the reckoning
Sep 20th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.The 55%-45% divide was larger than any of the polls had predicted and may reflect the last-minute fear factor strongly projected by the inglorious and verging-on-hysterical Westminster establishment. But it will come as an immense relief both to Cameron, who would almost certainly have been unceremoniously ejected if the Yes vote had won, and to […]
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Whatever happened to the Red Clyde
Sep 19th, 2014 by Diane Abbott.In the aftermath of the independence referendum the Labour party should address some key questions. But above all it must ask itself “Whatever happened to the Red Clydeside?” From the beginning of the twentieth century to the era of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work in, Glasgow has been a bastion of left-wing socialism and working […]
