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Success of small government



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EDDIE Barnes seems surprised that the Nationalists have confounded everyone by doing as little as possible ('Feelgood factor will only last if Salmond delivers real change', Comment, May 4). It's called small government.
Prior to 1997, the Forsyth-led indigenous Tories used to bang on about 'small government' in an attempt to stop the clamour for devolution. Instead of attempting to prevent the inevitable, the Tories missed an historic opportunity and are still paying a massive price in political support to this day.

Who would believe 10 years on that the indigenous Tories are 34 points behind the Nationalists? The indigenous Tory Party has paid a terrible price for its intransigence towards devolution, and could well remain a minority party for a generation.

During eight years of the Labour/Lib Dem coalition a confetti trail of legislation was produced to little effect. The statute books are cluttered with laws that few can even remember. The Nationalists with a wafer-thin majority have produced less legislation and done much more in a short 12 months.

No doubt the honeymoon will eventually come to an end, but who among the Scots Unionist parties would bet against it?

Lachie Todd, by e-mail





The full article contains 204 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 10 May 2008 8:50 PM
  • Source: Scotland On Sunday
  • Location: Scotland
 
1

Stuart W,

11/05/2008 04:29:05
The "less legislation" has nothing to do with the fact that the SNP has little chance of getting anything contentious through the Parliament, by any chance?
2

Sierra Foothills Scot,

Diamond Springs 11/05/2008 04:40:02
#1 Could be. But putting lots of ill-thought-out legislation through the Parliament is not sucha great idea either.
3

Agent 99,

11/05/2008 08:23:07
[2] Sierra: Quite right. You only have to look at the last 11 years of Neo labour administration to verify that. Punch drunk with a bloated unassailable majority is has led to dozens of 'initiatives' rammed into the statute book only to be de-emphasised within months when they couln't be made to work.

Legislate in haste...
4

Upbeat,

11/05/2008 09:04:55
The moment I spotted the word indiginous , the authorship of thss letter was a foregone conclusion.

Mr Todd has not allowed his rigid and "rabbit in a headlight" ideas about the Tory party to move on from the 1980's. His ideas about this political grouping are stereotypical of the headlines of two decades ago. In his hatred he has quite failed to realise that in Politics as in everything else old 'warriors' fade away taking their viewpoint to the grave with them to be replaced by fresh ,up to date, and new thought.

There is no proof that today's Tories in Scotland share any of the experiences, attitides or policy objectives with those of a previous generation of their party .

Meanwhile having a government ( SNP )that promised too much,wanted to be seen as all things to all people, was " bounced " -in a state of visible shock -into office and has ever since been forced to backtrack or go extremely silent on much of the manifesto that enticed people to vote for it in teh first place ,...this all demonstrates that -taken at face value - the Holyrood Talking shop is still not fit for purpose.
5

Mr. Lachie Todd,

Edinburgh 11/05/2008 09:58:10
Since being re-convened 10 years ago, "the Holyrood Talking shop" has shown to be a viable devolved legislature which has governed well on behalf
of the indigenous Electorate.

The Scottish Parliament enacts laws in exactly the
same way as Westminster AND, Stormont, the very first devolved legislature in the United Kingdom, and which receive the same Royal Assent in both chambers!

Like Stormont, Holyrood is a unicameral legislature and the Proportional Representation system of voting and Committee system ensures no one political party can monopolise power, and there is no requirement for a bloated second chamber like the House of Lords.

Politicians, academics, and political commentators travel from all over the world to observe the workings of the Scottish Parliamwent!

IF, the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party had cast aside its 20th Century fag-end of Empire tendencies, and had found the courage to accept the proposals of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, it could now well be governing Scotland, within the Union?

Instead, some day history might well record that 17 years of minority, Right-Wing Conservative government was the catalyst for the upsurge in Nationalism?
6

Upbeat,

11/05/2008 12:32:14
5.

We disagree I'm afraid.

Holyrood is not fit for purpose, yet.

Devolutuiion has shown what happens when a new forum for discussion , with limited powers, and no previous experience , traditions or mechanisms for the implementation of policy, is permitted some autonomy to "let rip" with taxpayers' money.

Scots have had several appalling pieces of ill judged , poorly composed legislation thrust upon them over the past decade. ( The Scotland Open access legislation, and the ban on hunting are but two, which weere not considered carefully enough .) We have seen inter party bickering water down the thinking behind more advanced legislationary programmes. The result is- in effect - yet more Quangos running aspects of life in Scotland, which are not in the very least accountable to the average Scot, and care less about their real longterm responsibilities: Historic Scotland , and Visit Scotland, along with Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise are all examples of public money being chucked about , now squandered in ways that produce limited and questionable benefits to the areas of Scottish life they were intended to oversee.

I have no doubt that Scotland can move on from this. I have no doubt that the broader concensus of opinion in Scotland can be harnessed to get away from narrow, bigotted attituides towards fellow Scots and their aspirations. But we are a long way from that yet.

Mr Todd's frequent posts referring inate horror of the "Indiginous Tory party " which all conclude that this political grouping are simply some reincarnation of it's own ancestry, is just one example of how some people in Scotland are very keen to shout down those they are suspicious of , without ever stopping to listen carefully to the ideas that fellow Scots are keen to put forward.
7

Mr. Lachie Todd,

Edinburgh 11/05/2008 13:52:29
I have absolutely no doubt that the mass of the Scots Electorate will continue to be highly suspicious of the aims and objectives of the indigenous Conservative Party which is temporarily concealing its reactionary Right-Wing ethos.

The Scots Electorate have a long collective memory and it may take a generation before the indigenous Tories, who are still treated like low caste political Dalits, ever become an alternative Scottish government?

 

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