The votes are counted, the question answered, but the dust has far from settled in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom following last Thursday’s historic referendum on independence. While Scots voted by a 55.3 to 44.7 per cent majority in favour of maintaining the 307-year-old union with the rest of the UK, a large number of those who ticked ‘No’ in the referendum did so on the basis of a “solemn vow” given by the three main party leaders in the UK that they would provide new powers for the Scottish Parliament sitting in Holyrood.
Now, however, it appears that Prime Minister David Cameron is facing opposition from within his own Conservative Party back benches over the nature of those powers — and specifically on whether Scottish MPs should be allowed to vote on issues that primarily effect England. The Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband, is also questioning the nature of these new powers. What is evident from the bickering and political squabbling at Westminster is that the pledge for more powers seems now to have been a knee-jerk reaction to opinion polls that showed a majority of Scots were leaning towards independence in the 10 days preceding the vote. That promise of powers, sold by the PM in two emotive trips north to Scotland, and echoed by all party leaders, needs now to be implemented without horse trading. Loyal Scots deserve better.
