Will No-One Rid Us Of These Turbulent Neeps…

(or IDS, SNP and WTF?)

A week or two back, the Government was defeated over its proposals to relax the Sunday Shopping regulations, mostly due to a decision by the SNP to vote against – citing their involvement in voting on an issue which affected England and Wales (but not Scotland who already had their own Sunday trading arrangements in place) as being necessary to defend the surcharge paid to Scots who chose to work at the weekend.

Then in the past few days we saw the resignation of Iain Duncan-Smith, who claimed that the same Government were adopting policies intended to reward their own voters, at the expense of the country – and in particular the less well off – as a whole. This has lead to detailed scrutiny of other budget measures and yesterday the SNP announced that if they were in power when the proposed cut in top rate income tax came into effect they would not implement it in Scotland. This would be a decision that would make it significantly less attractive for high rate tax payers to be domiciled north of the border.

Is there not just a hint of something fishy here from the Sturgeon/Salmond alliance – a double standard in fact. It’s OK to claim you represent the interests of your constituents on the one hand, interfering in political decisions that do not directly affect that electorate, while at the same time making announcements about how you’ll change the rules in your own domain, to the disadvantage of the better heeled constituents.

TheStickler is perplexed. Surely there is no grandstanding going on here? It must be a mistaken viewpoint to think that the SNP is simply exercising the power it has to cause as much embarrassment to the Government of the day, and as many column inches in the press, as possible? No, that can’t be right – today’s politicians still have integrity, morals, and a selfless desire to put the needs of Britain above internal squabbles and jockeying for position.

IDS took a position that was commendably “old school”, but has sadly demonstrated his failure to grasp the methodology of the new Politics, where it’s fine to shout foul in the first half, and commit the same offence in the second. It is indeed just a game, and everyone’s eye is on the TV rights and or relegation.

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