Re: The English should be our best pals, says Salmond!
- From: "Robert Peffers." <peffers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:13:10 +0100
"The Highlander" <micheil@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:766b23t2p4goa81c5nlqmq66h3ipa5tntv@xxxxxxxxxx
The English should be our best pals, says SalmondAlex and the SNP seek independence from the UK and not specifically from the
By Alan Cochrane, Telegraph
Last Updated: 2:12am BST 18/04/2007Page 1 of 2
For a man who wants independence for Scotland, Alex Salmond thinks a
lot about England and the English.
The leader of the Scottish National Party, which is on course to
become the biggest party in the Holyrood elections on May 3, is hell
bent on destroying the 300-year Union between Scotland and England.
However, he prefers not to see it that way, talking, instead, about a
"new relationship."
English. He does, though, know the UK is dominated by England.
It would be a relationship, he says, that would end the iniquities of
the West Lothian Question and stop the English being "bossed about" by
the Scots.
And if successful it could also deal a body blow to Gordon Brown's
future as a British statesman, because if Salmond ends Labour's
hegemony north of the border in the Scottish Parliament elections in
three weeks - which the polls suggest he's about to - he would set in
train the destruction of Mr Brown's most important power base.
Not really true as England elected a majority of labour MPs to Westminster
at the last election.
This election campaign has seen a relatively new Alex Salmond. Gone,
thus far at any rate, is the abrasive know-all who scorns criticism
and in its place is a smiling, almost benign figure, who never loses
his cool. Whether he can maintain this posture remains to be seen and
the old arrogant Alex, who infamously denounced the Nato actions in
Kosovo in 1999 as "unpardonable folly" may yet struggle free.
Alex, is normally a very laid back person and, whatever else, rarely loses
his cool.
In a wide ranging interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Salmond
discussed various aspects of the Union and offered what will be seen
by many as surprising support for the monarch as a unifying force in
future relations with Scotland.
SNP policy has never been anti-monarchy - in fact there really has been no
great consideration given to the question of what to do about them. The
consensus usually comes down to saying it will be the will of the Scottish
people.
And he saved his harshest words for Mr
Brown, delivering a withering verdict on the Chancellor's attempts to
somehow change his identity by "pretending" to be English. He said:
"What the people of England respect is people who are honest about
their nationality, their Scottishness, but who regard the English as
their friends."
And he poured scorn on the Chancellor's attempts to "ingratiate"
himself with the people of England by saying, for instance, that his
favourite football moment had been Paul Gascoigne's goal for England
against Scotland in Euro 96.
He lost a good deal od votes here in Fife over that one. He should keep in
mind that before he can look forward to being a Westminster Minister he must
first get elected to Westminster and we, his constituents, have to elect
him.
"One thing that the people of England will not tolerate is a
counterfeit\u2026 someone who is pretending to be not really
Scottish... pretending to be one of them.
Why ever not - they have accepted, "a Hale paircel o Scottish rouges", syne
afore the Union gaed live.
"He [Mr Brown] would be much better trying to be himself. It's a daft
notion to try and pretend that you're not what you are."
On relations between England and Scotland, he said that independence
was the "only" solution to the West Lothian Question, whereby Scottish
MPs can vote on English domestic issues at Westminster while they have
no responsibility for similar issues at Holyrood. Because of "an
obsessive desire for control," he says that the Labour government uses
its Scottish MPs to vote en bloc, often for pieces of English
legislation that are peripheral to their central programme and he
cited recent changes in the English probation system, all of which
related to England but which was forced through with Scottish votes.
There is no real West Lothian question - the real question is, "Why are the
English not demanding a parliament for England"?
Westminster is NOT the English parliament and thus ALL matters under debate
are UK matters as long as only England arte funded as the UK.
This conflict had led to changes in the way the inhabitants of the two
countries viewed each other and he preferred not to think of it in
terms of breaking up the United Kingdom. "I would rather express it as
new relationship between the countries and peoples of these islands,"
he said.
That has always been the SNP's view, people get thrown out of the party for
either violent views or having overmuch anti-English bias.
He added that while north of the border was in the driving seat of
this desire for change "south of the border is catching up."
Recent polls suggesting that the English were in favour of Scottish
independence did not mean, he thought, that ordinary English people
"wanted to get shot of the Scots". Instead, he said it was because
"they want to be stop being bossed about".
Mr Salmond even took to quoting a previous prime minister, often seen
as the archetypal Englishman, Stanley Baldwin, when he talked of the
plain people of England being favourably disposed towards the Scots.
While he did not think that the English were well served at present by
their political leaders, he did not think that the latter would seek
to stop Scotland becoming independent if its people so chose.
However, it was on the monarchy and the role of the Queen as head of
state that Mr Salmond gave an inkling of a surprisingly new approach.
The nationalist leader whose former deputy, Roseanna Cunningham, is an
avowed republican and whose party still contains a formidable
anti-monarchy element in it, admitted to spending "a lot of time"
thinking about its role. He said that he kept coming back to the basic
fact that technically, the United Kingdom was just that - a union of
two kingdoms. That was how Scotland and England were first joined
together, in 1603 when James the Sixth of Scotland became James the
First of a Great Britain that also contained England.
The truth is that the SNP have never officially been anti-royalist. |any
individuals have expressed their own points of view on the matter but there
was never an official pro or anti policy.
"Don't people associate the United Kingdom with the Union of the
crowns? That's why I've been pushing quite hard the distinction - much
harder than I've ever done before - between the union of the crowns
and the political union that followed.
"If you have a monarch, a common head of state of independent
countries, it underlines and stresses the social union between the
two, as being appropriate for both Scotland and England."
He said that there had been a marked change in the way Scots regarded
themselves. "I don't think that Britishness has slipped out of the
Scottish psyche entirely; it's been on the decline for 50 years, more
rapidly over the last generation."
As regards Britain's place in the world if the United Kingdom was
shorn of Scotland, Mr Salmond said that he thought that our permanent
seat on the UN Security Council would probably be maintained but added
he didn't think that ordinary people cared much about that issue.
And in the councils of the European Union, he believed that the
Scotland-less UK would retain its voting rights but, in addition,
would have an independent Scotland voting with it on most issues.
But he did not think that the English should be entitled to a
referendum on whether the UK should be broken up.
"Countries have the right to self-determination. Scotland is a country
not a county."
And he repeated that he did not think that the English would put any
barriers in Scotland's way should it choose independence.
"The English are essentially reasonable and have a substantial respect
for the Scots."
Of relations with the English, the nationalist leader said that both
countries should be "the best of pals, the closest of buddies with
equality of status."
And he added: "I don't know anyone in England, outwith the political
establishment, who doesn't think this is a reasonable idea."
Paraphrasing Baldwin again, he said that this view was shared by the
majority south of the border\u2026 "the plain people of England who
have not spoken yet".
An independent Scotland would be "better all round" for the countries
of the United Kingdom; he said it would bring "responsibility" for the
Scots and "democracy" for the English.
In conclusion, Mr Salmond said his vision of the future was of
"independent countries united by a monarchy that symbolised the social
union between the two".
Is not this view exactly how the Commonwealth works? After all New Zealand,
Australia, Canada, et.al., all have the Queen as their head of state and are
independent from the UK otherwise.
If the UK splits into independent countries after a friendly agreement then
the prospect is one of a friendly relationship but note the acrimonious
split of the Republic of Ireland and the hate and bad feelings often aired
by Irish Republicans on these very newsgroups.
Far better an amiable parting of the ways than a hate filled violent bloody
minded parting.
The SNP has always shunned the bullet and the bomb as political debating
points.
--
Robert Peffers,
Kelty,
Fife,
Scotland, (UK).
.
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- From: The Highlander
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