Let Scotland go its way

With a Scottish nationalist newly elected as the First Minister of Scotland, it seems that, after 300 years of being part of a wider union, the Scots really could end up going it alone.

First Minister Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party, will be pressing for an independence referendum and, if he succeeds in getting one, the result would be wide open.

If the mindset north of the border is moving towards Scottish independence, then the same can be said of public opinion in England, with several polls suggesting that a majority of the English now favour Scotland becoming independent. Sadly it is not hard to understand why.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each has its own parliament or assembly, while retaining the right to elect members of parliament to Westminster. These three countries therefore all now have a high degree of autonomy that is denied to England.

This means that Scotland runs, for example, its own health and education services, while its MPs retain the right to vote on these matters in England.

Gordon Brown, a Scot elected for a Scottish constituency, is about to become Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, putting him in charge of English policy on among other things, health and education.

How can that be justified, when the English have no equivalent say over these matters in Scotland?

Prior to the asymmetric devolution that Prime Minister Tony Blair has been responsible for since coming to power in 1997, Brown's Scottishness or the fact that he represented a Scottish constituency, would not have been an issue with anyone but a few little Englanders. In the current set up, however, it has understandably become a bone of contention.

On top of what many see as this constitutional unfairness, all three of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland get disproportionate amounts of public expenditure under the Barnett formula, which was conceived nearly 30 years ago.

Annual spending

Figures published in 2006 by The Business, a London-based weekly business magazine, found that annual spending per person in England was 6,623 pounds (Dh48,218).

In Northern Ireland the equivalent figure was 8,898 pounds (Dh64,791), which is 34 per cent more than in England, in Scotland it was 8,096 pounds (Dh58,940), which is 22 per cent up on England, while Wales got 7,509 pounds (Dh54,678) or 13 per cent more than England.

People have attempted to justify the allocations on the basis of need, saying that just as Scotland or Wales get extra public spending, then so also do deprived regions in England.

The difference is, of course, that the Barnett formula allocations are not regularly reassessed on the basis of ever-changing need. If they were, then Wales would almost certainly get higher per person public expenditure than Scotland.

The inequities of the Barnett formula, when coupled with the one-sided devolution of the past decade, are inevitably leading to a growing anger in England.

During a recent visit to the UK, I was struck by the level of disgruntlement that some English people were expressing with the current set up.

And it is not just a political disenchantment either, but an almost visceral resentment of those in the other parts of the UK and what is seen as their favoured status. It is sad to see this happen, but no one should be surprised.

Many in England feel that, rather than seeing the continuation of the present situation, in which Scotland runs its own affairs while getting what is seen as a disproportionate amount of public funds, they would prefer Scotland to break away completely.

There are countless "we are stronger together rather than apart" reasons why the United Kingdom should remain a union of four countries.

The long list includes having common armed forces, a greater say on the world stage and free trade and travel between the constituent countries.

But how convincing are these arguments when they are weighed against the unfairness of the current situation?

Either there has to be some major constitutional and financial realignment to eliminate the political and spending iniquities, or English resentment will, not without a degree of justification, grow ever greater.