UK constitutional debate

[Rhyfelwyr]

I'm glad you agreed on the constitution point since I know its a bit unorthodox for British politics. As to the points you raised...

- Dissolving the Scottish Parliament is a ship that has long sailed, and the SNP will turn revolutionary, akin to the IRA, if that occurred. The backlash from Scotland and the Scottish people would be enormous.

You are right it is not a practical solution. I was thinking of two possible roads to go down when mulling over these proposals:

1. use them as a moderate and progressive unionist solution - in this case, a clause would be used to allow for existing devolution arrangements to continue, and the wider constitution would hopefully allow for longer-term reintegration of Scotland into British politics.

or...

2. adopt them as part of a sort of vanguard position within unionism - by adopting such an anti-devolution stance, the aim would be to redefine the parameters of the debate and shift the mainstream position more towards my own, without expecting my own measures to be fully adopted.

- A 'north-south' split in England wouldn't happen. It would be the entirety of England or it would be more regional.

I don't see why not. It would allow a distinct voice for the more Labour-leaning north of England. Also, the bonus of splitting up England into two regions is that it denies any sort of recognition of nationhood to the 4 constituent parts of the UK. It represents regions, rather than nations. This deligitimises separatist claims to Scottish/Welsh/whatever and any non-British nationhood.

- I dislike the Half-way house idea for the House of Lords. It kind of needs a total makeover or simply needs removing/replacing with something else.

I think having non-elected members is a good counter-balance, so long as they are a minority and do not serve in the prime legislative body. It gives an alternative to the tackiness and populism of electoral politics.