As the debate over Scottish independence hots up, it is becoming clear that some voters in Scotland are worried that a yes vote in September will condemn the English to never-ending rule by the Tories. While I appreciate their concern, especially on St George's Day, the argument that Scots must vote no in order to save the English from neoliberalism simply doesn't add up.
Since the second world war, the votes of the Scottish electorate have only been decisive on three occasions – the general elections of 1964, 1974 and 2010 – each time preventing the Tories from winning a tiny majority. Scottish votes would not have stopped Margaret Thatcher, nor denied Tony Blair his three election wins.
In fact, there is an argument to be made that the Scottish electorate played an important part in entrenching the neoliberal agenda at Westminster. Safe in the knowledge that the majority of Scots would always vote Labour, Tony Blair felt confident enough to move his party to the centre ground and embrace the free market. New Labour was built on the back of the Scottish electorate.
The shock of losing its Scottish MPs might encourage Labour to rediscover its traditional supporters in England. South of the border, the majority would welcome the renationalisation of the railways and utilities, and there is overwhelming support for rebalancing the housing market.
And support for the union is not as strong as it once was. A 2013 survey by the IPPR thinktank found that 60% felt Englishness was more important to them than Britishness, with only 16% feeling the opposite. This sea change in English consciousness is topped off by a poll this week showing a real appetite for devolution in England: it found that 65% of voters agreed with the proposition, "Too much of England is run from London", the view being strongest among Labour voters (78%).
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The fact is that far from fearing the breakup of the UK, the English are looking at the benefits that devolution has brought the Scots and asking why they are not able to enjoy the same. Students in England struggling to pay their tuition fees are wondering how it is that their Scottish peers, living in the same country, don't pay anything at all; those in England forced to sell their houses to pay for personal care for elderly relatives are asking why British citizens in Scotland get those services for free; and patients and nursing staff who have to deal with the harsh reality of the free market intruding into the English NHS look in envy towards Scotland, where privatisation has been minimal.
Devolution has delivered real benefits to the people of Scotland, allowing them to vary their services and taxes in a manner that reflects a different polity to that emanating from Westminster. Is there a reason why the English can't be trusted to run more of their own affairs?
It's not just the Scots who are pulling at the threads of the British state. The ambiguous results of the last general election have put the Westminster system under great stress. It was designed to function best with a two-party system, but the electorate no longer seem wedded to that model. The disaffection that casts a pall over parliament has many sources, but the underlying sense that our votes no longer make a difference has the ability to do the most damage.
An English parliament would seem to be the simple answer to this problem, but I would worry that such a body would be too big, too distant and too centralised to really deliver devolved power to local communities. A series of regional assemblies, each with the same powers Holyrood now enjoys, would go some way to overcoming voters' concerns that the big decisions are being made elsewhere by corporate players who have no interest in the welfare of our society.
England would benefit greatly from devolution, but if the Scots vote for the status quo in September all this talk of decentralisation will be put to one side, just as the notion of a fair voting system was dismissed after the failure of the AV referendum.
If the Scots want to show some solidarity with the people in England who feel trapped in a centralised state where cheap credit, privatisation and deregulation are the only solutions offered, they should vote yes to independence and set us all free.
