Friday 1 May 2015

the hollowing out of the nation state

Something strange is happening in national politics. On the outer fringes of Britain affairs at Westminster are starting to seem increasingly irrelevant. You have candidates such as Sinn Fein who are elected as MPs but never actually attend Westminster. You have active and popular parties in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland that regularly put large numbers of MPs to Westminster but clearly have no potential of ever forming a majority, and from the panicked reaction of the traditional parties, would appear to have little immediate prospect of forming an alliance with the traditional parties, Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat. 

The argument from Labour and the Conservatives seems to be, that those of us in the devolved administrations, their quaint term for Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, should just vote for a proper party like them, or we are wasting a vote on some MP for some noddy party. In fact the Conservatives seem to be going even further, and arguing that having had a bit of devolution, it really does not matter who Scots vote for, their MPs will just be some strange neutered creature of little real purpose. 

In part this is petulance, the national parties just want everyone to vote for proper national parties for Westminster MPs, in part this is short term self interest, the Conservatives only have one Scottish MP, neutering the remaining MPs does them no harm at all. 

But the national parties are playing a dangerous game, they misjudge the people of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. For many people in Scotland, the UK general election has the interest of a rather over serious reality tv show, where they all shout over each other all the time. The people of Scotland know that they have a vanishingly small voice in the election, and the Scottish voice is getting fainter and fainter. None on the UK parties are remotely appealing for most people, most people have little idea who their MP is, what they do, or why we should care. In these circumstances Scots will vote for whoever they want, but like the people electing Nigel Farage as an MEP, it is not because we expect them to say or do anything at Westminster, but because like what they are saying. 

Devolution is a slippery slope, not because it is dangerous, or leads anywhere bad, but because once you are on it, you are committed to a direction of travel, down the slope, and you really had better think though where you are going very carefully. Unfortunately the only politicians who seem to be saying anything sensible on the subject are those arguing for full independence. Independence might not be the best answer, but politicians really do need to do some serious thinking about what the other answers might be, and start promoting them, rather than the current stale blend of opportunism and indifference.