Monday, October 22, 2007
What will Salmond do about the EU Treaty?
If you read just one piece of commentary today then it should be William Rees-Mogg's piece in this morning's Times. He makes a very compelling argument about the fact that the EU Treaty will transfer powers that have actually been devolved to Scotland from Westminister, and thus are not Westminister's ergo Brown's powers to give away.
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10 comments:
nice one!
Good. Further evidence that Brown and his swivel-eyed cohorts are incapable of thinking any "policy" through to its consequences.
Since when has Brown worried about giving things away that weren't his in the first place ?
The Socttish Parliament's powers are given by the Westminster Parliament. Thus the legilsative devolution the Scottish Executive enjoy are given powers from the UK Parliament. If the UK Government make a new Treaty in the EU and these changes enter it into UK law the Scottish Parliament will have to adopt it as part of the devolution settlement. If one want to make mischief you could - but in law that is the position.
What about Brown's oath to push for the Scottish people to be able to govern themselves in the way they consider the most suitable?
How easily he forgets inconvenient earlier gestures.
As usual, Wee-Smog has the wrong end of the stick, in this case the Scotland Act.
But I wonder if His Lordship might not weave some mischief in the Upper House with a variant of the Salisbury-Addison Convention.
This states that Their Lordships should not oppose a measure that was contained in the winning party's manifesto...
Potentially far more damaging, it puts EU oversight and regulation into to the delicately designed Northern Ireland settlement.
Tourism is an area where the EU only plays a "supportive" role, ie it does not impose legislation in this area, therefore Lord Wossname-Smog has based his entire argument on the wrong example.
As to previous comments: No, you cannot hand competences that are devolved over to Brussels. Westminster no longer possesses a competence once it is given away -whether that be to Holyrood or Brussels.
Since wee Eck bleats on about 'Independence IN Europe' - as big a misnomer as it's possible to have IMHO - I dare say he'll be happy to see his wee power base eroded as part of the great game.
The Scottish Parliament will no doubt be obliged to pass a legislative consent motion - otherwise known as a "Sewel motion" - signifying its contentment with the changes to be made to the devolution settlement by the ratification legislation before Wetminster.
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