The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #150420   Message #3504980
Posted By: Allan Conn
17-Apr-13 - 04:24 PM
Thread Name: To be a pilgrim/Thatcher's funeral
Subject: RE: To be a pilgrim/Thatcher's funeral
"Are you suggesting there was a shread of credibility in her policies?"

She was not to be trusted either. The former Prime Minister Lord Home urged Scottish voters to vote NO in the 1979 devolution referendum because the form of devolution did not go far enough especially in regard to tax raising powers and promised that the Tories would introduce a better devolution bill. Despite the majority of votes being YES it failed to get past the minimum votes required so the YES campaign lost. Shortly afterwards the Tory 1979 election manifesto stated "We are committed to discussions about the future government of Scotland". Then as soon as they gained power the idea was completely dropped. Then despite being only the second party in Scotland with only 31% of the vote (a whole 10% behind Labour) they chose to completely ignore Scottish opinion. The Scottish Secretary's traditional role of being Scotland's man in the Cabinet was turned into the Cabinet's man in Scotland. So from the promise of devolution and bringing democracy closer they turned to something more akin to colonialism.