April 14: Fresh Scots referendum could fund post-election spending

LABOUR and the Conservatives are pledging increased spending on the NHS after the election. Labour claims to be planning to fund it from a Mansion 
Tax and the Conservatives did not seem to have an explanation at all. Meanwhile, the SNP appears to be planning to spend as much English and Welsh tax subsidies as it can extort from whichever government ends up being cobbled together.

Instead of offering the awful uncertainties of an in-out EU referendum, why does neither of them offer us instead a Scottish Independence Referendum, by all means including the increasingly rampantly nationalistic Scottish? This could at a stroke leave the blackmailing Scots to stew in their own taxes and allow the English and Welsh to retain the money otherwise flowing north and provide the improvement promised for the National Health Service south of The People’s Democratic Republic of Scotland without the need for any additional revenue raising measures. Sorted!

From: Tim Hunter, Farfield Avenue, Knaresborough.

NO one seems to be considering this point, but how stable and viable would a Labour government really be, if it had to rely on SNP support?

If Ed Miliband tries to form a government with the SNP he is unlikely to introduce English votes on English issues. If he did he would potentially be creating a toothless government that from the outset would not be able to command a majority on many important votes.

However, an SNP coalition would be likely to force even more powers for Scotland, even more than promised in the run-up to last year’s Independence Referendum, which included taxation powers enabling it to raise 60 per cent of its budget.

As more powers were conceded, Labour would be under huge pressure to restrict the SNP’s voting powers. Ultimately the SNP support could force a further independence referendum which, of course, could mean an early end to the Labour/SNP government.

Of course, there has always been a large contingent of Scottish Labour MPs anyway, and the English votes on English issues issue should apply to them, just as it would to the SNP. Having said that, there’s no doubt that the SNP presents the Scottish influence at Westminster in a much more strident and noticeable manner than when hidden within Labour’s ranks.