A more democratic Union

HoL reform and independence for Scotland are two sides of same coin.  They are process driven responses to real and imagined problems.  They will not make UK more democratic. Instead they will open the gates to exclusionary demagogues and rent seeking party entrepreneurs.  Status quo is flawed (hereditaries in HoL should be kicked out) but nationally unified unicameral system offers socialists so many opportunities.  Danger of reform is it entrenches liberal veto.

What an odd article.

The “zesty freshness” of  ”constitutional radicalism” led to the ’97 landslide. House of Lords reform is linked to Scottish nationalism. And whilst Labour should defend the union, it shouldn’t be undemocratic, and it shouldn’t be done with David Cameron too. Urm, okay.

Is it not a little too late to be saying we should be making ‘a more democratic union’ when the union is potentially on the point of parting? it certainly exposes the very obvious lie that Westminster is only interested in the Union companion nations when there is a threat of them wanting to leave.
Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland have always been treated by Westminster as the lesser members of the partnership with England.NI has been a special case for funding because of the long running troubles there but is still held by Westminster as inferior to England.
 There is good reason for those nations be allowed to determine there own affairs both social and fiscal whilst remaining in the Union but they have to put up with Westminster interference and its ‘one size fits all’ governing style and policy and its insistence that the priority of funding go to London and the South East.
There is a palpable divide in England alone over priority of funding leave alone that allocated to Scotland Wales and NI and that has persisted for decades and regardless of which party is in power.
Labour may have traditionally been better at considering them but both Tory and Labour have been guilty of a blatant disregard of Scotland and Wales and little wonder there has been a growth in the Nationalist movements.
Had they both have considered the electorate of both of those nations on equal terms to England and addressed their brooding resentments and needs then maybe we would not now be in this position of Scotland wanting the freedom to manage its own affairs.
The media in its own inimitable way has managed to exploit old traditional prejudice and make a case that Scots and Welsh have never had it so good for the amount of funding that goes their way but the sad fact is what funding does go there is more to hush up dissenters to Westminster policy than a genuine wish to treat and fund either on equal terms to England.The same cynical funding applies in England and why we have the North South divide and why there is considerable political resentment to Westminster .   
Personally I do not think the Scots do want a complete break, just a fairer share of the resources  and greater say in how their government uses them and to manage its own day to day affairs how Scots would wish.
The growth in nationalism is just evidence that their complaints and concerns are repeatedly ignored and a last ditch measure to redress  a long festering imbalance.
A split may be  catastrophic to Scotland or its saviour who knows the real truth, but is a situation that was entirely preventable.
I do not ever believe it too late to do something, to prevent the break of the Union by making it more democratic,it should have been addressed decades ago,but the danger is Westminster will go back to its usual ways once the threat of a split recedes, so Westminster (of all political parties) has an opportunity to do something to admit its mistakes and redress the balance build a stronger Union with Scotland or to reap the benefit of its blase attitude to Scotland and its ignorance of its people.
The Conservatives have learned to their cost of ignoring Scottish voters in the loss of MPs.
If both main  parties continue on their old paths then the end to the Union will be inevitable.
It makes no odds at all what system you use to govern a nation or hold together a group of them or how you reform its Governmental machinery if you simply continue- for political or  financial expedience- to ignore those partners to the agreement of unity, who are supposed to be equal to you.
It would be a real shame that a 300 year Union came to an end but no one is more to blame for that than Westminster itself and its own political folly.