Paying for England's follies
From Dr Winifred M Ewing, MSP Sir: William Hague (`Give England the vote', 1 April) is right. Devolution has been bad news for the English and much worse is on the way.
Devolution isn't working well. The pre- sent constitutional set-up is grotesquely unfair to the English. Of course changes will have to be made.
William Hague, the most talented Con- servative leader since Edward Heath, is set to harvest vast numbers of votes from dis- appointed and disaffected Labour support- ers. His is the party of Middle England or it is nothing.
De Gaulle vetoed England's first attempt to join the Common Market. When it final- ly was accepted he said, 'The English have not yet decided whether they are in or out of Europe.' In my experience, as a former member of the European Parliament, this was still very much the view of my col- leagues, particularly the French and the Irish MEPs.
I think what is most likely to come about is that the old, tired and not much wanted Union of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England will be replaced by individual membership of the European Union. There, Scotland will have the opportunity to prosper like Luxemburg, Holland, Den- mark and Finland, instead of having to pay for England's follies like Kosovo, Rover redundancies, Trident submarines and air- craft-carriers out of our oil money.
Winifred M Ewing
President, Scottish National party, Elgin, Moray
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