When Scotland grows up............... by indypal2
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When Scotland achieves her independence what kind of society will we create? Allot will stem from how seriously we take our new found responsibilities. What is clearly apparent is that the current set up won't suffice. The Scots parliament as it is now has few checks or balances. It needs to be revised and the structure re-aligned for more interaction with the whole nation. Also what will be our future relationship with the head of state? When the Queen is in the country that's simple but what about when she is not. All of these questions need reflection and more importantly answers.
Nationhood will bring hard decisions and its not inconceivable that at sometime inthe future Scotland may need to declare war. So its time to get the thinking caps on and come up with a great parliamentary democracy of which we can all be proud. We should look around the world and adopt the best practice. Countries like New Zealand and Australia show us how to tackle the Head of State issue by having their own Governor General (NZ GG pictured above) to stand in when the monarch is in England, we should do the same. But why not go further and have them elected.
Also our parliaments single chamber structure is too weak, we need a bicameral parliament with a revising chamber with powers that can hold the govt of the day to account. A senate would be a great idea to delay bad legislation exposing it to the light of scrutiny. Should the lower house becomes too extreme then the upper house can block anything. This would be of benefit if an extreme government were appointed, then the upper house could keep a check on legislation.
The revising chamber should be elected from each of Scotland's Local Authority Areas, there would be about 50 representatives. Each area would elect one representative giving us our second chamber and would hopefully attract people from outwith the political parties. The lower and upper houses combined could have powers to dismiss a Govt or declare war with a 2/3 majority ensuring that we get the checks and balances we desire. Its a heady debate to start but one we must contemplate if we are to grow up and become an independent country. We are a big country and must start thinking big, lets get it right this time and not have the shambles that was the birth of devolution.
