Denying the English what we claim for ourselves
Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to let SNP MPS vote at Westminster on the future of English schools and hospitals is challenged by
S Elf-determination. Home rule. The claim of right. You’d have thought Scottish Nationalists would be keen on this kind of thing. Enthusiastic, even. The independence referendum was full of this noble, stirring rhetoric. Selfdetermination was an inalienable right – almost a state of grace. It was the birthright of any self-respecting nation.
Scottish Nationalists wanted this not just for their own country but for all the other sub-state nations of the world. There was a sense of solidarity and fellow feeling with the Catalans, the Québécois, the Welsh.
But not, it now seems clear, the English.
Nicola Sturgeon has taken the bold step of allowing SNP MPS to vote on English health and education at Westminster – even though in Scotland these issues are fully devolved to MSPS at Holyrood.
So her Scottish MPS will vote on how English schools are run, even though English MPS cannot vote on how Scottish schools are run.
Ms Sturgeon says this is justified because changes to English health and education spending could have a knock-on effect on the amount of cash the Scottish Government is given by the Treasury, through the Barnett Formula.
This is technically correct, and when she first announced this policy I could see its logic. And yet I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s morally flawed. It simply does not stand up to scrutiny as the right thing to do.
The problem is simply put. In the SNP’S world view there are rights we demand for ourselves, while we deny them to others.
Think back to pre-devolution days,