It occurs to me that there is something lacking from the current campaign for the Scottish Independence Referendum. Where are those Scottish members of the Westminster Parliament, who surely would be amongst the most central characters in this historic vote? Scotland is represented in Westminster by 59 MP’s, who will all become redundant if a Yes vote is returned. Some are towering political figures, and have reached the highest office, and some mere backbenchers. Some have warmed the green leather benches for decades, whilst others were only recently elected to what might otherwise been a job for life.
These demi-MP’s presently have only a fraction of the responsibilities of other UK members, being that many powers, such as health and education (amongst many others) are now the responsibility of the MSP’s for the same constituency in the Scottish Parliament. They do of course vote on these matters for the rest of the UK, but frankly don’t need to do their homework, as those people didn’t elect them. With all this spare time, you might think they would be making themselves useful by teaming up to make the case to save their jobs. Surely the most prominent body of people in the NO campaign would be those who are sent by the Scottish electorate to represent them in Westminster? As part of any MP’s role is to in-turn represent Westminster to their constituencies, then I would expect them to be very visible indeed, both severally and jointly, to sell the necessity of the United Kingdom.
Now I’ve scoured the Internet, and so far have completely failed to find even one picture of at least 10 of them together, never mind all 59. Given the strictness of the party system, I must wonder if they are under orders to lie low until their future is decided. I know they have been campaigning locally, but there appears to be an accord whereby they must not be seen together, lest the public realises what little they do for Scotland. I’m really keen to know, but in the absence of any kind of logical explanation, I must assume that they just don’t want to be seen together, if at all.
PS. Here’s the full list of them.
