Speaking in debate about Scotland result earlier : Mr McKay: Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-LeasCheann Comhairle. All has changed, and changed utterly. I do not think that anybody could not agree that these islands have changed as a result of the result in Scotland. What happened in Scotland was a true exercise in democracy. We saw 16- and 17-year-olds voting for the first time, and there is absolutely no reason that that franchise cannot be extended to here as well. We also saw a turnout of 85%, which is absolutely extraordinary by modern-day standards. Of course, politics should not be left to just the politicians. In terms of our future on this island and where the Norths best interests lie, we should have the same debate. It was a healthy exercise in Scotland. There was some scaremongering, but, across the world, Scotland has been held up as a shining example of how to hold a mature debate about future governance. We should have a poll in Ireland about whether Ireland is better together and, like I said, no scaremongering. The public in Scotland and the public here do not want their politicians to continue to bend the knee to the Tories and the British Treasury. There is a tendency for politicians here to accept whatever the Treasury says as gospel. If the Treasury says that we owe a certain amount of money, we will not even question it. The Scottish Government did question it and did their own figures, whereas the Department of Finance here does not want to know. That is not acting in our best interests or in the best interests of the public. Of course, economic report after economic report — I think that there have been about 15 in recent years — shows that the North lacks fiscal levers and that it suffers because of that. Any figures for economic output and growth show that we continue to suffer, whilst the South, even with its difficulties, continues to have greater levels of growth. That is because we do not have the fiscal levers, and our fiscal policies are set at Westminster by the British Government in the interests of the island of Britain. We need to wise up to the fact that we need fiscal levers here. We need those levers to ensure that the policies set here are in the interests of the people in the North and are set with the realisation that we live on a different island and therefore need different policies.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 23:26:41 +0000
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