brown says london must keep promise to scotland as political truce ends
TRANSCRIPT
8/11/2019 Brown Says London Must Keep Promise to Scotland as Political Truce Ends
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/brown-says-london-must-keep-promise-to-scotland-as-political-truce-ends 1/4
Brown says London must keep promise toScotland as political truce ends
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaks to pupils during a visit to Kelty Primary School in Fife , Scotland September !,"#$%
B& G'& F(')*+B-./G0 (/ M.*1(0) 1+)/02Sat Sep 20, 2014
(Reuters) - Former prime minister Gordon Brown urgedBritish leaders on Saturday to keep their promise to grant further powers to Scotland
after it voted to remain in the nited !ingdom" as a consensus #etween London$s main
parties evaporated%
&ll the three #iggest parties had promised to rapidly e'pand Scotland$s autonomy in a
last-minute push to shore up support for the union ust days #efore hursday$s
referendum" which came down **-+* against independence%
But within hours of the result" Britain$s ,onservative rime .inister /avid ,ameronhad reshuffled the cards #y promising not only to fulfil the pledge to Scotland #ut also
to make it part of an overhaul of the #alance of powers across the rest of the nited
!ingdom" within the same timeframe of a few months%
0e vowed to produce 1a #alanced settlement2 fair to people in Scotland and"
importantly" to everyone in 3ngland" 4ales and 5orthern 6reland as well1%
8/11/2019 Brown Says London Must Keep Promise to Scotland as Political Truce Ends
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/brown-says-london-must-keep-promise-to-scotland-as-political-truce-ends 2/4
he announcement 7uickly shattered the pre-referendum consensus among London$s
main parties%
La#our opposition leader 3d .ili#and said plans for constitutional change on that
scale needed to #e put to mem#ers of the pu#lic through a convention in autumn 89:*"
after the ne't parliamentary election - which ,ameron$s ,onservatives said amountedto kicking the issue 1into the long grass1%
La#our$s Brown" who had helped to rally fellow Scots #ehind the nited !ingdom" told
supporters on Saturday in Fife" Scotland" that 1the eyes of the world are upon the
leaders of the maor parties in the nited !ingdom1%
1hese are men who have #een promise-makers and they will not #e promise-
#reakers"1 he said" 1and 6 will ensure as a promise-keeper that these promises that
have #een made are upheld%1
5&6;5&L /6SS&6SF&,6;5
<hough the referendum result was clearer than e'pected" the fact that +* percent
#acked secession attested to a dissatisfaction with London$s politicians that reaches
from the divided streets of 5orthern 6reland to impoverished former mining villages in
4ales" and not least to struggling parts of northern 3ngland that feel a million miles
from the relative prosperity of London and the southeast%
4ith Scotland having put regionalism high on the agenda" ,ameron and the other
London parties are under pressure to demonstrate that 3ngland -- which unlike
Scotland" 4ales or 5orthern 6reland has no regional government of its own -- is not
disadvantaged in financial or democratic terms%
14e can$t allow there to #e a different process of devolution to Scotland and a different
timeta#le for 3ngland" we have to do the two together or not at all"1 said ,onservative
lawmaker &ndrew ercy%
1he 3nglish cannot #e fo##ed off% 6 don$t think the 3nglish pu#lic will stand for it"1 he
told BB, radio%
But senior La#our lawmaker 0ilary Benn said giving more powers to 3ngland could
not #e decided under ,ameron$s timeta#le%
8/11/2019 Brown Says London Must Keep Promise to Scotland as Political Truce Ends
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/brown-says-london-must-keep-promise-to-scotland-as-political-truce-ends 3/4
;n the eve of the La#our party$s annual conference in the northern 3nglish city of
.anchester" .ili#and said living standards were top of the agenda for voters in ne't
.ay$s election%
1,onstitutional change matters" #ut we know something else matters even more"1 he
told supporters% 1his country doesn$t work for most working people and we" theLa#our arty" are going to change it%1
3L3,6;5 L;;.S
4ith polls suggesting that the election will #e a tight contest" ,ameron may fear Scots$
wrath over a possi#le delay to their increased powers less than that of his own
lawmakers in London" who have seen support #leed away to the rising anti-3 !
6ndependence arty (!6)%
0is initiative would seek to address the constitutional conundrum of Scottish mem#ers
of the British parliament voting on ! policies - for instance" on health or education -
that do not apply to self-ruling Scotland%
But while ,ameron$s ,onservatives won ust one parliamentary seat in Scotland at the
last election - part of the reason why many Scots felt under-represented in London -
La#our has +: Scottish .s" and every reason not to reduce their influence%
<ust #efore the Scottish referendum" Brown appeared to #e making government policy
in announcing that laws granting further devolution to the Scottish parliament would
#e drafted #y the time Scots cele#rate the #irthday of their most revered poet" Ro#ert
Burns" on <an% 8*%
/uring the campaign" ,ameron" .ili#and and Li#eral /emocrat leader 5ick ,legg for
their part all promised to guarantee Scotland high levels of state funding and greater
control over healthcare spending%
Scottish First .inister &le' Salmond on Friday announced his resignation after defeat
on the issue to which he had devoted his political life" #ut told his supporters2
14e have now the opportunity to hold 4estminster$s feet to the fire on the vow that
they have made to devolve further meaningful power to Scotland%1
/espite cross-party calls for reconciliation after the vote" si' people were arrested in
Glasgow late on Friday when police had to divide hundreds of secessionists and
8/11/2019 Brown Says London Must Keep Promise to Scotland as Political Truce Ends
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/brown-says-london-must-keep-promise-to-scotland-as-political-truce-ends 4/4
unionists waving flags and chanting national hymns%
(3diting #y !evin Liffey)
osted #y havam