OpEd: Scottish finance 28-11-14

The commentators 28-11-14

...on Scotland

After the next election the SNP could send forty MPs south to a Parliament it hates and repudiates, the only bloc big enough to be a coalition partner. But whose? New leader Nicola Sturgeon, while we were all riveted on the Thames estuary, has stated beyond contradiction that SNP will never, under any circumstances work with the Tories. So Labour then. Ed Miliband in Downing Street. But there will be a non-negotiable condition. A second referendum on secession from the UK. Which they will win by hook or by crook - and they have a lot of those.
- Frederick Forsyth, Daily Express

The Smith report is about Scotland. But in providing what Scotland wants, Smith poses questions for every corner of Britain too. Those implications, for Westminster and for localism, will need to be addressed and resolved in time for the 2020 general election at the very latest. Today was a good day for those who believe that bold approaches to fixing British politics can work. But the job is far from done. Indeed, it has only just started.
- Martin Kettle, The Guardian

It is crunch time. The Smith report has not simply revived the West Lothian question: it has rephrased it. It is now clear that there will be two species of MP. South of the border will be English MPs who are quite properly unable to vote on devolved matters that are none of their business. North of it will be Scottish MPs who can, in theory, vote on load-bearing pillars of the budget that have nothing to do with their constituents. This is not a tolerable state of affairs.
- The Times

...and on immigration

There are plenty who take issue with Google's trajectory. Whether it becomes News Corp and its papers to question other businesses that are dominant in their markets, that want to drive competitors to the wall or that don't pay their fair share of taxes is for others to debate...
There is a big issue here to be tackled journalistically, but it requires an overarching approach and heavy investment in personnel and money - and those are resources in short supply. And who can look at the entire question of privacy, personal security and surveillance without being accused of having a vested interest? .
- Editor's blog

Tuesday 25 November The Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards were announced at a breakfast ceremony this morning. David Aaronovitch was named Commentariat of the Year and his newspaper, The Times, won the award for the best comment pages. Stevie Spring, who led the judges, made it a hat-trick for the Times by choosing Melanie Reid for the chairman's award.
The FT, Guardian, Mail and Sunday Times each picked up two awards. SubScribe was also among the winners. You can see the full list of awards here. A video of the presentations will be posted online later.

comments powered by Disqus

Please sign up for SubScribe updates
(no spam, no more than one every week or two)

Can it make sense for the UK to leave the EU over its principle of free movement of people? The answer is: no. Immigration is indeed a big issue, as is UK membership of the EU. But the former must not drive the latter. Both are too important for that. Yet increasingly David Cameron is boxing himself into a corner in his discussions with other members of the EU. This is largely a result of his party’s hysteria over the electoral success of the UK Independence party.
- Martin Wolf, Financial Times

Comment digest courtesy of
Editorial Intelligence