The Scottish Independence Referendum is over. Scotland has spoken and taken the lead to a general debate on how the UK should be governed. There should be a Constitutional Convention headed by one of the highest ranking High Court Judge. He/she will be assisted by a number of members of all political parties including the nationalist parties and also a number of constitutional experts.
The way forward is federation of four states - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - within the United Kingdom with every state having a Parliament headed by First Minister or Chief Minister. In addition there should be a Federal Government at Westminster headed by Prime Minister elected by UK citizens. The Westminster Parliament will be the seat of that government.
The convention’s function will be to divide powers between the Federal Government and State Governments with the former administering defence, foreign affairs, currency, national insurance, pension, trade policy, international development, policy on environment and power generation. The rest should be with the state governments. There should be an agreement of tax raising powers with the provision of each state being able to borrow money up to a certain limit but guaranteed by the Bank of England.
Once the agreement between the states is made this should be decided by UK citizens in a national referendum and thus make it a permanent settlement. Let us have a United States of Great Britain.
Dr Jatindra Saha
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