Shooting yourself in the face

[andrewducker]

Apparently David Cameron is being advised to take control of the Scottish situation by preempting the Scottish government holding a referendum and announcing it themselves.

Right now I feel pretty much neutral about Scottish Independence. I can see positives and negatives.

But if a Westminster government starts trying to manipulate what happens because of the election up here, I'm going to be voting in favour of it, and so will an awful lot of other people. Because it's exactly that kind of behaviour which has a fair chunk of the population wanting independence in the first place.

Comments

[the_future_modernes]

I hope he does it and it backfires on his arse. Whatever makes England think that they need to run other people's countries in this the year of our lord 2011?

[emceeaich]

Woah, I have not been following the situation closely.

[pseudomonas]

I've just realised that if Scotland leaves the Union, then the Conservatives have an overall parliamentary majority in the rest of the UK. Erk. Cameron may be playing this to lose.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I completely agree - it would be exactly the same calculating, "Right question at the wrong time" move that he pulled with AV.

If I were David Cameron, I would be very wary of pissing off the only leader in the whole of the UK with a straight-up majority - particularly when that leader is Alex Salmond, who is an extremely talented politician.

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

He's being advised ... what??? Good grief ... by who? How utterly crass and stupid. (Are you sure this isn't a story being put about by the more devious elements of the "yes" camp?)

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall Salmond pre-emptively saying something about the referendum being in the second half of this parliament - because he knows he couldn't win it at the moment. But if David Cameron announced it against the wishes of the SNP, then I might also vote in favour to piss him off.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

OK, so David Cameron might be about to do something that would piss a whole load of people in Scotland off so badly they'd vote for independence?

And, as mentioned elsewhere, if Scotland goes independent the UK is basically one-party in perpetuity, and that party's the Tories?

So David Cameron, whilst making lots of noises about "I want the UK to remain intact", is doing stuff that looks very likely to encourage independence?

I mean, I know "never assume malice where stupidity could be the cause", but doesn't that sound a bit like he's, y'know, manipulating the situation?

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Maybe he's thinking about holding a referendum on Scottish independence in England. The question could be something like:

"Do you want to continue paying higher taxes to subsidise Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Cornwall - Yes / No?"



Personally, I think this would be a winner. I see what the Scots get out of the union with England, but it's harder to see what the English get out of it.