for the last few days i was praying with United kingdom,not to detach Scotland from united kingdom.YES.my prayers heard THE GOD ALMIGHTY.ALSO,Congratulate David Cameron the most powerful Prime Minister of UK.,in his best work for the unity of UK and Scotland together. forever.all wishes.K.M.RADHA
This week has seen one of the most extraordinary votes in our history. The people of Scotland spoke; our United Kingdom remains united. As I said in Downing Street on Friday, now is a time for our country to come together, and to move forward.
I have always approached issues of devolution as a patriot. I love the United Kingdom; I want to make it work; I want to keep this family of nations together – so devolution must be about how best we can live together.
That’s why I wanted to hold this referendum. The Scottish Nationalist Party has been a threat to the unity of the UK for a generation.
There was a clear and present danger that the SNP Government would set our country on a course for separation.
I decided it was best to challenge that directly and to settle the question – and I am delighted we have done that this week.
Put it this way: today is the first Sunday for a long time when we can say there is no question mark over the future of our United Kingdom. The line they were pencilling in on the map, just north of Hadrian’s wall, has been rubbed out.
But the No vote has not meant no change. As I and the other party leaders promised, the starting gun has already been fired on a major programme of devolution. New powers over tax, spending and welfare are on their way to Scotland.
The timetable is brisk, but achievable: a White Paper by November, and draft legislation published by January. It would have to be passed in the next Parliament.
However, there is nothing rushed about the substance of what will happen.
For the Conservative Party, it is the result of a long process to work out a devolution settlement for Scotland that would last.
Our Strathclyde Commission set out the most far-reaching proposals on Scottish devolution of any party.
This was started back in the summer of 2013. Indeed, it’s now the Conservatives who are the keenest of all the parties in Scotland to make devolution work by giving the Scottish Parliament real additional powers so its members take responsibility for their decisions.
And – by leading from the front on this – Ruth Davidson of the Scottish Conservatives has emerged as the party leader with the most enhanced reputation.
So for the Conservative Party, these proposals were not the work of a week, but of many months.
As far as we were concerned, the motor was already running and we just needed all three pro-UK parties on board before we could get going.
This week the other parties got on board, we agreed a timetable for action, and we are moving forward.
But this moment must not just be about securing Scotland’s future in the UK – and celebrating that fact – but settling other questions whose time has come.
The challenge is to make sure our UK works for all nations. Millions of people in the rest of the UK have been listening to these debates, watching this campaign and rightly asking: ‘What will change for us? Why can’t we have the same powers and the same rights as those in Scotland?’
These are questions the Conservative Party itself has been asking for a long time.
Why should Scottish MPs be able to vote on what is taught in English schools, to reduce spending on English hospitals, or even vary English or Welsh income taxes, when under the new settlement English or Welsh MPs would have no say in such matters in Scotland?
It is fundamentally unjust to have the views of the people of England and Wales overridden in this way.
And again, this is not a recent concern of the Conservative Party. I have argued for the past decade that we need ‘English votes for English laws’.
It’s been written there in our past three General Election manifestos: 2001, 2005 and 2010 – and I should know, I wrote the second and oversaw the third!
Now I am Prime Minister, my position is this. If the Scottish Parliament will soon have a range of new powers: powers over income tax rates; to change benefits such as housing benefit; to increase spending, including on the NHS – then there is a crying need to reflect that across the UK.
When we change our constitution – how we are governed – a new settlement has to be fair and lasting. Forcing English people to accept policies on schools, hospitals and taxes for which they have not voted is not fair and such a settlement could not last.
Of course, devolution is not just a matter for nations. Power can and must be devolved more locally. I am a localist.
That’s why I’ve pushed unprecedented powers out to local government. It is why we have devolved business rates – because those who live and work in a town or city often know best how to put the fuel in the tank of their own local economy.
And through our Northern Powerhouse plan, we are already having a conversation about what further powers our big cities should have.
All this is on the table – but to be clear, all this should happen in addition to further national devolution, not as a substitute for it.
Our main focus now in Westminster must be addressing the English question – and again, a cross-party approach would be best. Conservatives and Labour worked together on this recent campaign for the good of Scotland and the UK.
Now we should work together to ensure the voices of all the people of these islands are heard, and that a basic unfairness at the heart of our democracy is put right.
So at the start of the party conference season, the challenge to Labour and Ed Miliband is clear: either resolve this issue with us, or explain to the people of the rest of the UK why they shouldn’t have the same powers as we are rightfully devolving to the people of Scotland – why, for instance, Scottish MPs should be able to vote to vary income tax rates in England, when the Scottish Parliament is going to be setting Scottish income tax rates in Scotland.
For my part, I will do all I can to make sure the millions of voices across England and Wales are heard; that we have a truly fair settlement for the whole of the UK; and that we work out how best this family of nations can live together in the years to come.
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