New powers

[Bundesliga Boy]

Ok so regardless of whichever political party you follow, which 3 or 4 powers that are currently held by Westminster do you believe would be better devolved to Scotland and why. 

[Malky3]

None. 

I'd rather see Holyrood closed. The fewer career politicians we have with their snouts in the trough the better. 

 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

None. 
I'd rather see Holyrood closed. The fewer career politicians we have with their snouts in the trough the better. 
 

Obvs. You're the absolute epitome of a servile, cretinous doormat. We'd expect nothing less.

[Wee-Bey]

Imagine thinking that the most important decisions about Scotland should be made, not by the people who live and work here, but by an endless conveyer belt of racist nonces from Eton.

Keep tugging that forelock champ.

[Pet Jeden]

17 minutes ago, Henderson to deliver ..... said:

Imagine thinking that the most important decisions about Scotland should be made, not by the people who live and work here, but by an endless conveyer belt of racist nonces from Eton  Brussels

Keep tugging that forelock champ.

FTFY

[Jacksgranda]

[Pet Jeden]

9 hours ago, Bundesliga Boy said:

Ok so regardless of whichever political party you follow, which 3 or 4 powers that are currently held by Westminster do you believe would be better devolved to Scotland and why. 

1. The power to unilaterally hold Indyref 2.

2. The power to implement Indyref 2.

3. The power to grant England*  its independence . Whether it wants it or not.

*with apologies to Wales & NI

 

[Wee-Bey]

3 minutes ago, Pet Jeden said:

FTFY

Who let you out of the Brexit thread?

Get back in there.

[UsedToGoToCentralPark]

Remaining taxation such as National Insurance must be fully devolved.

Benefits

Those are the main 2 as it would hold the government in Scotland fully accountable and mean 'Tory Austerity' could be stopped if the government wanted to.

[GordonS]

9 hours ago, Malky3 said:

None. 

I'd rather see Holyrood closed. The fewer career politicians we have with their snouts in the trough the better. 

 

Tell you what, how about we close councils too - that's 1,220-ish politicians in Scotland gone at a stroke. There are 776 Lords, so let's get rid of them too, waste of money. That leaves 650 MPs, how many do we really need? How about 1?

And elections, they cost hundreds of millions and achieve what exactly? It's always the same, snouts in the trough the lot of them. And if we're getting rid of politicians and elections, then we might as well give the job to the head of state.

If it worked in the dark ages, it can work today. 

[Granny Danger]

11 hours ago, Bundesliga Boy said:

Ok so regardless of whichever political party you follow, which 3 or 4 powers that are currently held by Westminster do you believe would be better devolved to Scotland and why. 

I don’t accept the terms of the question.  Scotland requires Independence and all the powers and responsibilities that go with it.

[GordonS]

In no particular order, and assuming a proportionate share of funding/ tax capacity follows the power:

Employment Law - workers' rights are at risk with Brexit and this would enable Scotland to retain things like the Working Time Directive.

Energy - the UK government's reductions to funding for renewables, especially the Feed In Tariff, has caused a stall in the installation of renewables. Our ability to meet climate change targets is compromised by not having control of energy. People don't realise this because SG has done so much on renewables, but it has done so at its own cost and without legislative powers.

Immigration - this is a tricky one, given the open border. But Scotland's needs and attitudes on immigration are substantially different from England's. Maybe it would be possible to devolve this, provided it didn't give rise to a right to reside in the rest of the UK. This is going to be a bigger issue after Brexit, as many sectors (eg agriculture, universities, health) will be disadvantaged by not being able to recruit staff from across the EU. And the UK's increasing hostility to immigration from elsewhere is just as big a problem. 

[Suspect Device]

1 hour ago, GordonS said:

In no particular order, and assuming a proportionate share of funding/ tax capacity follows the power:

Employment Law - workers' rights are at risk with Brexit and this would enable Scotland to retain things like the Working Time Directive.

Energy - the UK government's reductions to funding for renewables, especially the Feed In Tariff, has caused a stall in the installation of renewables. Our ability to meet climate change targets is compromised by not having control of energy. People don't realise this because SG has done so much on renewables, but it has done so at its own cost and without legislative powers.

Immigration - this is a tricky one, given the open border. But Scotland's needs and attitudes on immigration are substantially different from England's. Maybe it would be possible to devolve this, provided it didn't give rise to a right to reside in the rest of the UK. This is going to be a bigger issue after Brexit, as many sectors (eg agriculture, universities, health) will be disadvantaged by not being able to recruit staff from across the EU. And the UK's increasing hostility to immigration from elsewhere is just as big a problem. 

 

 

I've never really bought into this. Maybe I just meet more racists than you do though. Plenty of people I talk to are not keen on immigration. Particularly old Bill down the pub who voted for Brexit to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the English channel. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-46457341

 

[welshbairn]

Control over the nuclear submarine fleet.

[The OP]

4 minutes ago, Suspect Device said:

Plenty of people I talk to are not keen on immigration. Particularly old Bill down the pub

 

ACAB tbf so I don't think you can judge the whole country based on that. 

[hearthammer]

10 hours ago, Malky3 said:

None. 

I'd rather see Holyrood closed. The fewer career politicians we have with their snouts in the trough the better. 

 

Aye, much better having fat, privileged old etonians sharing the hedge fund spoils once the closed shop favours have been carried out, eh ??

[Malky3]

1 hour ago, GordonS said:

Tell you what, how about we close councils too - that's 1,220-ish politicians in Scotland gone at a stroke. There are 776 Lords, so let's get rid of them too, waste of money. That leaves 650 MPs, how many do we really need? How about 1?

And elections, they cost hundreds of millions and achieve what exactly? It's always the same, snouts in the trough the lot of them. And if we're getting rid of politicians and elections, then we might as well give the job to the head of state.

If it worked in the dark ages, it can work today. 

I'd certainly scrap the Lords too. 

I voted for Scottish devolution but it has been a con trick. Instead of localising politics its actually centralised it. Local authorities no longer have the power to make local decisions.

In the meantime at Hollyrood weve got a parliament stuffed with MSPs who were rejected by their constituents but who are there because they were high enough up on their parties list. It's a badly flawed system that means a sizeable proportion of the parliament is more answerable to their political party than the people they are supposed to represent. 

Like I said I'd close the Scottish Parliament. It's been an abject failure in democracy 

[GordonS]

30 minutes ago, Suspect Device said:

 

 

I've never really bought into this. Maybe I just meet more racists than you do though. Plenty of people I talk to are not keen on immigration. Particularly old Bill down the pub who voted for Brexit to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the English channel. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-46457341

 

You might be right, but what's definitely the case is that we're much more likely to vote for parties that are positive about immigration, and much less likely to vote for parties opposed to it.

FWIW, you don't have to be racist to want less immigration. But it helps...

[GordonS]

4 minutes ago, Malky3 said:

I'd certainly scrap the Lords too. 

I voted for Scottish devolution but it has been a con trick. Instead of localising politics its actually centralised it. Local authorities no longer have the power to make local decisions.

In the meantime at Hollyrood weve got a parliament stuffed with MSPs who were rejected by their constituents but who are there because they were high enough up on their parties list. It's a badly flawed system that means a sizeable proportion of the parliament is more answerable to their political party than the people they are supposed to represent. 

Like I said I'd close the Scottish Parliament. It's been an abject failure in democracy 

Name a power that Scottish local authorities had in 1998 that they don't have now.

On the other side, they now have power over prudential borrowing and business support that they didn't have then. Labour increased hypothecation from 1999 but the SNP scrapped it almost entirely in 2007.

It's Holyrood, not Hollyrood. It's named after the holy cross of St Margaret.

So you oppose proportional representation. Cool cool. FPTP puts more power in the hands of parties rather than electors, because it lets them put who they want in safe seats. And the vast majority of all elected members are "rejected" by the majority of voters, as they get less than 50% of the vote in constituency. For example, in 2011 the SNP won Edinburgh Southern with 29.4% of the vote. It was their worst performance in the whole of Scotland, but because the vote split among the parties, they won. Are the votes of the other 70.6% not to count for anything? AMS allows the final result to reflect more accurately how the country actually voted. If you want to reduce the parties' power, campaign for open lists. 

FWIW, if we'd had FPTP for Scottish Parliament elections, Labour would have had an outright majority in 2007, even though they got 32.2% of the vote and finished second to the SNP. If we had FPTP now, the SNP would have an absolute stranglehold on the Scottish Parliament, dominating every committee. How the hell anyone can support a system as blatantly undemocratic and unrepresentative as that is a mystery to me.

If the Scottish Parliament is an "abject failure in democracy", why is it far more valued by the Scottish public than Westminster? Why has confidence in it grown while confidence in Westminster fallen? I could quote any number of surveys showing that, but I'm sure you know how to use Google. 

As for democracy, Scotland has always had separate education and legal systems from England, but you want a party who got one MP elected in the entire country in 2010 and 2015 in charge of them? You think it MORE democratic that the parties who finished a distant third and fourth in 2010 would have all the power over domestic affairs in Scotland, locking out the parties that finished first and second, than having a Scottish Parliament? Come on, you're a dogmatist but surely you're not that daft.

Most people are right about most things, but you seem to be on a one-way mission to be wrong about literally everything.

[Jacksgranda]

2 hours ago, Malky3 said:

 

 Local authorities no longer have the power to make local decisions.