LETTER : What West Lothian Question?
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Your support makes all the difference.If there is no answer to the West Lothian Question that is because it is not a question (Alan Watkins, 2 March). A Scottish Parliament would be subordinate to Westminster which would be able to devolve or retrieve powers, or indeed abolish it. Scottish MPs would be entitled to vote on UK matters because they would not have subcontracted their powers. Every action of a Scottish Parliament would, in constitutional terms, be executing the will of the UK Parliament.
I do not think that the antipathy experienced by Margaret Thatcher was just because she was Conservative but because she asserted her English nationalism. Scots are not, in fact, particularly nationalistic but are allergic to English nationalism. If the Conservatives had gone for devolution when they had the chance instead of Mrs Thatcher's bombast and Mr Major's whining, they might have become the majority party in Scotland. Fortunately they got it wrong.
Gavin Sprott
Edinburgh
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