Danny Alexander takes on a tough job

Streeter

"..Labour and the SNP were tearing into the Lib Dems for going into.." **yawn**
They will, that's politics. Hopefully most Scottish people accept that this was a National election and they are no more disenfranchised than any other area that voted Labour.

Richard of York

Just wait until Alex Salmon gets hold of him. Should be a youtube hit.

Wily Trout

What are the benefits of the union? None to English concervative voters, as far as I can see.

Grumpy Optimist

So what - let them go. Please

SUSAN HILL

Perhaps you'll give some reasons why you are a Unionist, at some point James ? I can see no merit in it now though there was once. But as always, I` open to informed argument on the other side.

Roger Davies

The Union no longer has any other function other than channelling funds from England.

departed

If our Tartan pals don't want to be friends, let them go their own way - but without any contribution from south of the border, other than to gather up the NEETS and get them digging a deep ditch and building a large wall from Berwick to Carlisle. Close the roads and rail lines and reroute the flights via Brussels as that will be their only source of income.

If they can't play nicely, they can keep Bruin and all the other Scots Liebour MPs to themselves.

WASHBROOK

Why the English put up with this.let Scotland run their own country & let us be rid of them.
I live in Lancashire we have a Labour M.P.
But the large majority are conservatives.
I am of the view we would all be better off.
I have on many holidays gone to Scotland.
But no more.
When we are in the soccer World Cup a great many Scots do not support us.
If Scotland were there instead of us the majority would be cheering for Scotland.
Take Andy Murray you see the support he gets at Wimbledon.

Bill Rees

Any union can only work for as long as the respective parties want it to work.
If just one side decides it has had enough, then the union is effectively finished.
If the Scots really do feel as though the union is over, then it is, and nothing can be done to save it.
I can't see the point of carrying on with a joyless marriage.

Paul Hawkins

What's for them to be angry about? English cash and their own Parliament is nice work if you can get it. If anything, the anger should be directed from South to North.They do not suffer from the effects of a West Lothian question in reverse.

Regardless what % of Scots voted against the Tories, a significantly greater % voted for them in the UK. Tribalism does not work in national politics but seems what Labour are about,with or without the geography. Yet the wonder why they are no longer in government?

Derek Bruce

Note to all resentful English voters - please keep up the good work with your misinformation about Scotland (supposedly the only country ever to strike il and get poorer!) draining funds from England.
I am starting to believe that the fastest route to Scottish independence may be to aid any movement for English independence.
So England, sit back and consider the scary prospect of making your own way in the world without Scotsmen to fill your armed services, without oil to balance your books, without international goodwill to balance the resent with which the English are usually viewed all over the world and without a servile northern neighbour to host your adventure holidays and nuclear waste.

Richard of York

Very interesting the speccies are anti Unionists.....perhaps someone had better tell the Queen to prepare for major changes her dominions.
She might have something to say on the matter. Perhaps we should ask the Scots to repay the bail out money for their banks and leave them to it now we have used up all their oil and gas.....nice people speccies.

Ian

I used to be a unionist, but it takes two to tango.

It seems that the majority of Scots don't want anything from the union except for English money. I can think of better things to spend my taxes on, like the health, education and prosperity of England.

The Scots should leave the Union sooner rather than later.

RKing

Richard
That post sums up you and your paymasters philosophy on politics. i.e. the undermining of anything that is not yours or you cannot control.
This has been inherent in the actions of the likes of Brown, Campbell and Mandelson and illustrates why nulieb got it all so wrong.
You name it and you screwed it and it really overshadowed Browns departure when the cunning trio were at it till the last.

How stupid and foolish they looked in the dying embers of their crumbling hold on what was once a proud party.

I'm afraid you like them don't know when to call it a day.

Senor Frizby

It is high time the Scotland issue is looked at from the English perspective. The Scottish commentary over the last few days has been laughable.. at least we would be laughing if it wasn't so expensive and yielded zero return.

Willie de Peepul

@Richard of York
2010 2:46pm

Your razor-sharp anal-ysis over the last five weeks and the accuracy of your predictions has enthralled us over the last five weeks.
Now, there's a leadership election starting; don't you think it's time to return to your alter ego, Ben Bradshaw or whichever other Labour troll you impersonate? If you continue to tar yourself by association with speccies the next leadership might decide you're as trustworthy as a double agent.

Tom

The SNP keep banging on about how 83% of Scots voted against the Tories.

By the same token 80% of Scots voted against the SNP.

I do not understand why commentators do not make this simple point.

Richard of York

@RKing
I see when the Indians decided they didnt like you you left taking their gold and treasure first...same with Zimbabwe and all the colonies....now the Scots wont vote for you its now time to ditch them.....keep this up and you will be down to the shires and Kent.....reminds me of Passport to Pimlico.

RKing

Richard
Don't you have any toys to play with?
You're just being a silly boy now.

Sir Graphus

I'm sure you'll still let us have the adventure holidays, Derek Bruce.

I do apologise for most of my countrymen. The oil revenues pretty much cancel out the Barnett formula bias, and while oil production declines, the price is increasing. The revenue balance is actually amazingly neutral.

The democratic imbalance, though, is a bit much for we English at the moment, and we're going through an emotionally difficult time coming to terms with the knowledge that our partner, who we used to love, has actually loathed us for years. Normally these things end in divorce, but splitting the assets and the debts is going to be really difficult. You can have the oil and your toxic bank debts. We'll have the submarines.

Tom Burroughes

A smart Scottish government would be trying to make the country a sort of "Switzerland of the North", by making Edinburgh attractive on tax grounds, as Zurich is, or for that matter, Dublin. Given the socialist culture of Scotland, however, that is unlikely in the immediate future.

emil

The funniest thing about recent days has been the SNP describing themselves as "progressives".

Chuck Unsworth

@ Derek Bruce

It would certainly be a price well worth paying. Bring on full independence, erect full border controls, forcibly repatriate all scots and bring an end to the constant Hibernian wingeing. The sooner the better, as far as I am concerned.

They hate the English, do not wish to be part of a United Kindom, so let them all return to their sainted motherland. I see one has already made the journey from Downing Street. May there be many more. The English can certainly live and prosper without these Scotchmen.

Michael

It's amazing how much attention this issue seems to have suddenly got in England since the election. It was always a nutty position even among newspaper discussion thread commentards (and lets face it we're not the most stable lot).

I think it was the spectre of a Labour majority bribed into place by excluding Scotland and Wales from some of the forthcoming spending cuts that has done it. Alex Salmond is often accused of trying to achieve independence by annoying England so much they give Scotland the boot. If that is indeed his aim I must say he's played a blinder this election.

Moraymint

Another Labour government legacy: a botched devolution arrangement which ultimately threatens the Union.

Four hundred years of co-existence unravelling before our eyes - and to what end exactly?

I suppose the English would argue that they'd be wealthier as a result. I remain to be convinced that Scotland could readily fill the English funding gap whilst creating sustainable prosperity for Scotland's citizens.

EyeSee

Of course, none of that 85%, or indeed the other 15% have any right to any say in Westminster anyway. I really am getting fed up of the way Scottish politicians see themselves as important rather than just benefits claimants. They administer their own funds and significant amounts from elsewhere. No MP's at Westminster and no taxpayers money from outside Scotland (just like an independent state) would shut them up pronto. And don't whine about 'oil money' you don't have any oil. The output of British wells is landed in Scotland and we should pay for that. Make it too expensive and we'll ship it further south. Which will mean a few more jobs gone north of the border. How about growing up and stop the 'part of the EU' act, rejoin the United Kingdom and show that investment in Scotland would work. (A little hint though; no matter what your last 'genius' Gordon Brown said, welfare benefits are not 'investments'). You might have to be able to talk like and with wealth creators though (i.e. Conservatives).

Kennybhoy

Thanks for that Chuck.

Kennybhoy

Moraymint,

Did you catch this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sjmxj/Why_Didnt_Scots_Vote_Tory/

James Boulter

Scottish GE Votes:

SNP - 491,386 votes
Conservatives - 412,855 votes

Considering the attitude of every outlet of the Scottish media, the fact that Salmond is First Minister of Scotland and the significant anti-English feeling of a large minority of Scots, that is not a bad result for the Tories.

Pity it yields 6 times as many SNP seats as Tory ones...

Gawain

This all shows why Cameron wants the coalition to last five years and why this is in the Liberals' interest as well. Labour are behaving like spoilt children. They are in complete denial. The combined Liberal and Conservative vote in Scotland was 35.6 %. at a national level in 2005 this % was sufficient for Labour to form a government with a working majority in Parliament. Time for Labour to rejoin the human race and rediscover a little humility I think.

geoff hall

I agree with Wily Trout, and I see no benefit to England of this union. It simply costs English taxpayers a significant premium for which little but hostility is returned. Probably constitutionally tricky to unpick, but so what? Let's just ensure that craven civil service do not bind England into an unjustifiable set of parachute payments, although no doubt this will attract oprobrium similar to that expressed by the French government that England will not pay to bail out the Euro; in return we are threatened that they will not come to the aid of sterlng should the crisis hit our currency. Like they did in the last three sterling crises? Uhu.

John Lea

I'm a Scot who understands - and even sympathises - with English people on this point. There is a degree of anti-English feeling north of the border, which I find difficult to understand. Personally, i find the Scots' attachment to the Labour Party both frustrating and irritating. Having said that, I would be sad to see the end of the union.

p.s. Chuck Unsworth - your 'repatriate all Scots' and 'erect border controls' comment was both pathetic AND unfunny.

Kennybhoy

I Kennybhoy, being the Coffee House Returning Officer for Scotland, declare the votes cast in the General Election of May 6th, 2010 to be as follows.

Labour: 1,035,528 votes = 42 seats
Lib Dem: 465,471 votes = 11 seats
SNP: 491,386 votes = 6 seats
Conservative: 412,855 votes = 1 seat

If we used PR the division of seats would be

Labour: 24
Lib Dem: 11
SNP: 12
Conservatives: 10
UKIP: Maybe 1
Greens: Maybe 1

Eighty percent of the votes cast were for unionist parties.

Oh and the North of England and maybe the West Midlands are as Labour as Scotland.

Kennybhoy

Oh and Chuck, I think you meant to write Caledonian rather than Hibernian.

Craig Strachan

Danny Alexander seems to be the only MP for a Scottish seat in the Cabinet. A far cry from the days just past when the PM & Chancellor were both Scots, and there were many more in key positions.

A good thing, you may well say. But it will feed Scottish resentment, which is always a ravenous thing.

Osred

RoY

I thought you were off to Florida. Shouldnt you be learning Spanish realtor-speak instead of dropping Bronx cheers all over this place.

Sir Graphus

That's quite a stat you've got there Kennybhoy; while the Nats claim they speak for Scotland, and the Tories definitely do not; the reality is they polled about the same votes.

Osred

Kennybhoy
May 12th, 2010 5:10pm

You're right to point out the 80% of Scottish voters going for 'unionist' parties but its a shame that doesn't tranlsate into 80% approval for the English.

Chuck Unsworth

@ Kennybhoy,

You may be right, but to me Hibernian=Celt - and the English seem to be beset with wingeing from all manner of Celts. But I'm happy to take your word for what I might actually mean.

@ John Lea,

So we'll have to agree to differ as to humour. In my remarkably biased and intolerant view the Scots have always taken themselves far too seriously. The convenience of having a neighbour against whom they can bear a constant, unremitting, grudge blinds them to their own failings and weaknesses. Must be something to do with the climate. However, justifiable pride is one thing, blind arrogance and bigotry another.

And the continuing injustice of West Lothian?