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

[pseudomonas]

If Scotland separates during the next 4 years, does the govt in Westminster turn pure Tory?

[andrewhickey.info]

Interesting question. I *strongly* suspect that any split would be timed to happen neatly with England/Wales General Elections, to give people on both sides time to prepare.

But if not, the Government is in the control of David Cameron, who remains Prime Minister as long as he can convince the Queen he can command a majority in the Commons. In the constitution (such as it is, and unwritten as it is) that's irrespective of parties. So the question is, would Cameron prefer to continue to govern in partnership with the Lib Dems or not, and if he did prefer to, would his party allow him to?

(Also, I don't know what the constitutional position would be for Scottish MPs. When boundaries are redrawn, MPs stay in until the next election when their seat disappears. Would that happen for MPs whose country had seceded? The West Lothian question writ large...)

[pseudomonas]

I imagine that Cameron would choose to govern with Conservatives alone given the chance; I was more wondering whether all Scottish MPs would just leave Westminster or what, as per your last paragraph.