Johnny Hates Jazz

'An English parliament would be a good step'
By Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson

'An English parliament would be a good step' - Telegraph

Alex Salmond, the champion of Scottish independence, talks to Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson




Alex Salmond in Bute House, Edinburgh, the official residence of Scotland’s First Minister


The door to Bute House opens silently, like the door to Number Ten. There are £8 million portraits on the walls, a gleaming Cabinet table, and ministerial cars purring outside.

Alex Salmond, like his fellow Scot in London, has only recently moved into his new Edinburgh home, but unlike Gordon Brown he's still having a ball. "I'm loving it," he says. "Come and look round, I'm going to take some more Scottish paintings back from London for the walls. You can come to the castle afterwards. I've got the keys."

His enthusiasm is infectious. He has a row of political awards and even his enemies admit he has been canny in the six months since he became First Minister, ending Labour's 50-year domination of Scottish politics. "I don't know why I am still having a honeymoon but I do have a strong view of where I am going and that helps," says Mr Salmond.

Doesn't he feel a twinge of pity for his fellow Scot? "Gordon is a formidable politician but some of the things that are the best qualities in a chancellor turn out to be really bad qualities in a prime minister. All that micro-managing, the close-knit group of allies, these are not things that make you a great prime minister.


"I don't wish him ill but Gordon is a political opponent. Scotland is no longer a Labour fiefdom."

If Mr Salmond has his way, Scotland will no longer be anyone's fiefdom, but an independent country. The only problem is that he has to convince the Scots that this is what they want. "We have got a scheme, it's called independence, it's nice and clear but if people want another option on the referendum ballot paper, then I don't have an objection. But it has to be a defined option, such as fiscal autonomy. It can't just be, 'A little bit more of what we have got'."

If his fellow Scots don't back the idea, his masterplan appears to be to push the English into telling the Scots that they have had enough of them. "If people in England want to have a referendum on Englishness they can ask their representatives. I think it is a good thing to have a developing sense of Englishness," he says. "An English parliament would be a good step."

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Independence Now!

I think the perennial troublemaker Alex Salmond should shove off and get a life. We are British and proud of it.

Englander 1

The problem is that it is only some English and the Scottish Raj (The true Scottish Nationalists) that keep pushing the sense of being British and it doesn't wash anymore.

Surely you must realise that the British establishment is now the enemy of the English people...wake up and smell the coffee!

We may be all 'Briton's' but I am English first and foremost.

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"There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other.
That word is ENGLAND." - Sir Winston Churchill

Britannist

Europhile Scottish so-called 'Nationalist' Salmond (who admits that his name may be French in origin) is out to destabilise the Union of the UK as much as possible. The Unionist parties of Scotland (who have a combined majority in the Scottish Parliament) should not have let this man Salmond take office as First Minister of Scotland.

The rival Parliament in Scotland should be abolished with its duties and responsibilities handed to Scottish constituency MPs who could meet regularly in different parts of Scotland at less cost than the current devolved legislature.

Britannist

I notice that Brown's Liebour Party seem to believe that the English should be expected to take on the "British" identity - but the same Government does not appear to be quite so enthusiastic about promoting "Britishness" in Scotland and Wales. Whenever Labour hold a conference in Wales and/or Scotland the slogan (on the backdrop to the Labour conference platform) is always "Forward with Scotland" or "Forward with Wales" - but in England Labour (at their conferences and on their literature) use the slogan "Forward with Britain" and NEVER "Forward with England".

Labour created the devolution mess in Scotland which has led to the rise of the Scottish so-called 'National' Party (SNP) - but it is Labour which is trying to pressurise England to back the "British" identity when it is in Scotland where Labour are needed to promote the Union (in view of the anti-UK SNP taking power in the Scottish Parliament).

If Labour wants to save the Union of the UK then it must promote Unionism in Scotland and Wales.

Britannist

Yes, more and more people in England are thinking the same way.

Labour have got to give equality to England with Scotland within the UK (i.e. an all-England legislature to match Scottish devolution) or support in England for England quitting the UK will grow.

I support the Union of the UK - but it must be a Union fair to England and her people.

arden forester

That is completely the point, Britannist. Alex Salmond is stirring it because he sees an English parliament as a potential rump for the Union whereas most would see it as being a fair settlement within the Union.

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Britannist

Yes, europhile Scottish so-called 'Nationalist' (SNP) Salmond sees the emergence of an English Parliament as the 'first step' to breaking up the UK - when, in fact, an English Parliament would just bring balance to the constitutional set up in the devolved UK which has existed (for Scotland and Wales) since 1999.

I do not think - as the anti-English Labour Party claims - that an English Parliament would lead to the break up of the UK. But I do believe that if Labour continue to refuse to give England and her people equality with the nation and people of Scotland within the UK then support in England for ending the Union of the UK will grow.

My preference is the UKIP policy of shutting down the rival Parliament in Scotland and handing its devolved responsibilities to Scottish constituency MPs who would meet in Scotland (with English constituency MPs in the Commons dealing exclusively with specifically English matters during the absence of the Scottish constituency MPs from the Commons). Such a system of Government would put England and Scotland on an equal basis within the UK and it would create a direct link between the devolved legislatures and the national Parliament of the Union of the UK (i.e. MPs would be members of both).

What is clear is that the present Labour Government policy boosted support for the europhile Scottish so-called 'National' Party in this year's Scottish Parliamentary election. Labour's policy of refusing to give England equality in the UK is unacceptable and Labour will pay a very heavy price for their anti-Englishness at the polls if they continue on the current course.

rjt

Agreed Mr Salmonds motives are never to be trusted.

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(Margaret Thatcher 30 Oct 1990)

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Little Englander (sour)

I'm afraid that your wish is in the domain of the voters in Scotland who, incidentally, put him there, in government, at Holyrood.

It's called democracy.

If you don't like it, F off.

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Little Englander (bigoted)