green umbrella

Devolution plans could provoke a nationalist backlash in England and threaten the future of the UK - because they do not go far enough, according to a centre-left think tank.

A study of Labour's devolution programme published by Catalyst, which is chaired by the party's former deputy leader Lord Hattersley, argues that the party "has embarked on an ambitious programme of decentralisation and constitutional reform, but this lacks strategic vision".

The British Union State argues that without further constitutional change, devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland "could lead to a backlash in England, further encouraging separatist nationalism".
"To counter this there needs to be a rolling programme of devolution to the regions of England," writes Simon Partridge.

"The government must signal its intentions much more clearly in this area."

Before the last election Labour said it supported moves towards further regional devolution across England. Since then, however, moves towards establishing regional assemblies has been delayed until after the next election.

The pamphlet says a new constitutional settlement must be "equitable", whereas currently there is an "asymmetry" between the Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies and the Scottish Parliament on the one hand, and the English regions on the other.

It suggests that Wales could be a "constitutional laboratory" for devolution to England. The author points out that Wales has fewer than 3m people, but will shortly have over 6,000 directly elected representatives, serving at European, national, regional, unitary local authority and parish level.
This structure of representation and the ratio of elected representatives to population - about 1 to 500 - is a good one for a modern country seeking to the European ideal of "subsidiarity" into effect.

Derek Foster MP, a former Labour chief whip and current member of the Steering Group of the North East Constitutional Convention - which is campaigning for a regional assembly - backed the argument.

He said: "This provides us with a timely and far-reaching analysis of the dangers of stopping the devolution process half-way through.

"It points out that the current constitutional difference between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the regions of England is just not sustainable."

Mr Foster, MP for Bishop Auckland, urged Labour to "carefully consider" the argument if the party is to beat back the threat of nationalists in Scotland and Wales.

Monday, February 1, 1999 Published at 03:52 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/265504.stm

i really have to concentrate on the work and remember the purpose of all these....
and i really want to go to picnic to Windsor or London tomorrow.
Cheers, Eunyoung!

In July 1997, the Government published its White Paper, 'Scotland's Parliament', which outlined its proposals for devolution in Scotland.

The White Paper contains 40,000 words of precise, legislative prose. It took 60,000 person hours of Ministerial and official effort to produce.

It has 116 clauses. There are eight back-up schedules setting out the consequences of devolution in extensive detail.

The proposals were approved in the referendum of September 1997 Some of the main proposals set out in the White Paper included:

• A directly elected Scottish Parliament with 129 members
• Issues that are reserved for Westminster decision-making ranging from the Constitution to "the regulation of activities in outer space"
• Everything else by definition is devolved
• The Parliament will elect a First Minister - who will head the Scottish government
• Funding will come by Block Grant from the common UK Treasury
• The Scottish Parliament will have the power to vary the basic rate of personal income tax by a maximum of 3p in the pound. There is no power over corporation tax
• Legislation governing Scotland - and the back-up administration - will be determined by a popular mandate of the Scottish electorate, rather than a mandate derived from Westminster elections

Legislation was passed in the Parliamentary session 1997-98 resulting in the Scotland Act 1998.

The Legislation was implemented in 1999 when the first elections took place.

SCOTLAND ACT 1998

'An Act to provide for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and Administration and other changes in the government of Scotland; to provide for changes in the constitution and functions of certain public authorities; to provide for the variation of the basic rate of income tax in relation to income of Scottish taxpayers in accordance with a resolution of the Scottish Parliament; to amend the law about parliamentary constituencies in Scotland; and for connected purposes'.
[19th November 1998]

The Act runs parallel to the White Paper with a few notable exceptions with regard to the power to legislate contained within Section 29.

Section 1 of the Act establishes that there 'shall be a Scottish Parliament'.

The Executive is now responsible for many of the day-to-day issues that affect the people of Scotland including education, health, transport, justice and rural affairs.

It manages an annual budget of approximately £20 billion.

There are 129 members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) - 73 are elected by first past the post and 56 from party lists for each of eight constituencies based on the European Parliamentary Constituencies.

One of the most notable Parliamentary figures is the Presiding Officer, whose role is comparable in many ways to that of the UK Parliament's Speaker.

Part II of the Act, Section 44, provides that there will be a Scottish Executive comprising of the First Minister, other Ministers appointed by the First Minister, the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor General.

One major problem for the Scottish Parliament in its first four years has been public awareness of what exactly it is for.

With the devolution settlement of 1998, a new legislative tier was added to government north of the border, bringing with it 129 MSPs.

The number of civil servants and ministers, whose job it is to make policies a reality, also grew dramatically.

With so many new faces and structures it was inevitable that a degree of public confusion would arise over what the new institutions would and could do.

So, why have a Scottish Parliament in the first place if the Westminster parliament had been effectively running the whole of the UK for 300 years?

The simple answer is that when Labour came to power in 1997 it had a manifesto commitment to devolution.

It argued that a decentralised and devolved government structure would give Scotland greater say over its own affairs and in doing so strengthen the UK.

One year later the Scotland Act was passed providing "for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament".

This process, known as devolution, would effectively transfer a whole swathe of law making and administrative powers from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive.

Under the terms of the Act, the Scottish Parliament is able to pass laws on issues such as health, education, transport, justice, enterprise, culture, social justice, public services and the environment.

In effect there are many more - including the power to raise or lower tax by 3p - but everything within the parliament's remit is known as a "devolved matter".

The Scotland Act also specifies a range of "reserved matters" on which the Scottish Parliament cannot pass legislation, including foreign policy, defence and national security.

Again, there are many more, but the Act outlines the parameters which the Scottish parliament must work within.

One of the key roles of the parliament north of the border is to hold the Scottish Executive to account, just like Westminster's role in putting checks and balances on the UK government.

Members of the Scottish Parliament, MSPs, can use oral and written questions to hold the executive to account.

They can also scrutinise the work of the executive through their membership of the parliament's many committees.

Each committee must have between five and 15 members which reflect the balance of the parties within the parliament.

Other key roles include;

• to make or amend laws on devolved matters by passing legislation
  
• to debate important topical issues
  
• and to conduct inquiries and publish reports on matters of public interest.

All new laws start life in the parliament as bills. These can be originated by the Scottish Executive; a Scottish Parliament committee; any MSP through a Member's Bill; and any person through a Private Bill.

To become law, any bill must successfully negotiate three stages in the Scottish Parliament.

During stage one, MSPs consider the general principles of the bill in one of the relevant committees and hold a debate in the parliament.

At the second stage, the bill is given further scrutiny by MSPs in the relevant committee, and subject to amendment.

Only after this, does the bill enter its third and final stage where MSPs in the parliament vote to pass or reject it.

If it is passed then Royal Assent is given and the bill becomes an Act of the Scottish Parliament.

The full force of the new law then comes into effect immediately unless otherwise stated in the bill itself.

even though i am not yet used to this new blog and i am not sure if i will be updating this blog, it more feels like having my own homepage and an on-line diary than the existing Naver blog or Cyworld Minihompy.. and i have no choice but to write in English and the menus are also all in English....
anyway, i think it is not bad....

Hello (*^^*)