The Secretary of State for Scotland is supposed to represent Scotland’s interests in the Cabinet. The UK Government does still have responsibility for issues which affect Scottish – pensions, benefits, taxation, energy policy – so I think someone in Cabinet does need to have responsibility for assessing whether policies have a particular impact on Scotland. Not sure that it needs to be a “full time” post, for a while the person who was Scottish Secretary also had other Cabinet responsibilities
It’s true that the Scottish government controls a lot of things, like education, health, police, etc but there are other things ‘reserved’ to Westminster like foreign policy and taxation. So they tell us that we still need the Scottish secretary to speak up for Scotland in the UK government. If you believe he does that, you will believe we still need him. If, on the other hand, you believe, like me, that he’s just a yes man for the London government, we might as well not have him.
We have our own Government, yes, but that covers devolved issues only. The Scottish Secretary is also a constituency MP and, I’m sure, works hard at that as well. I think a few people in Scotland would be miffed if Scotland did not have its place at the centre of the Westminster Government and the Scottish Secretary fills that place.
The Secretary of State for Scotland is supposed to represent Scotland’s interests in the Cabinet. The UK Government does still have responsibility for issues which affect Scottish – pensions, benefits, taxation, energy policy – so I think someone in Cabinet does need to have responsibility for assessing whether policies have a particular impact on Scotland. Not sure that it needs to be a “full time” post, for a while the person who was Scottish Secretary also had other Cabinet responsibilities
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It’s true that the Scottish government controls a lot of things, like education, health, police, etc but there are other things ‘reserved’ to Westminster like foreign policy and taxation. So they tell us that we still need the Scottish secretary to speak up for Scotland in the UK government. If you believe he does that, you will believe we still need him. If, on the other hand, you believe, like me, that he’s just a yes man for the London government, we might as well not have him.
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We have our own Government, yes, but that covers devolved issues only. The Scottish Secretary is also a constituency MP and, I’m sure, works hard at that as well. I think a few people in Scotland would be miffed if Scotland did not have its place at the centre of the Westminster Government and the Scottish Secretary fills that place.
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