On being a second class citizen

Predictably, the media have used the BBC poll results on the acceptability of a Scottish MP becoming prime minister to focus on Gordon Brown's chances. The BBC website said:

"A majority of English voters think Scottish MPs should be barred from becoming the UK's prime minister, according to a BBC survey.
ICM research spoke to 1,000 people for the poll for the BBC's Politics Show.
They were asked whether it was right for a Scottish MP to be prime minister now Scotland has its own parliament.
While 45% of those questioned across the UK thought it was okay to have a Scottish PM, 52% were opposed. That figure rose to 55% in England alone."

The response of The Herald is here and that of The Scotsman is here. Like these media, Alex Salmond's comments - somewhat surprisingly - also seem to miss the point:

"Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond said the findings were "bad news" for Labour.
"It means the current prime minister is deeply unpopular in Scotland while the future prime minister is unacceptable in England," he said.
"It shows Gordon Brown's new-found Britishness cuts no ice north or south of the border."

There are wider issues here, and they seem to me to offer the SNP a wider opportunity than petty point-scoring over the Blair succession. If the English and the English MPs believe that it is not right for a Scottish MP to become PM, then the implication is that we would have two classes of MPs: those that are allowed to become PM and those that are not. And that means that Scottish voters would also be second class. The MPs that we vote in to the Commons could never become PM. But Scotland must nevertheless play its full part in implementing the decisions presided over by that English PM, such as sending troops to Iraq or Afghanistan or paying income tax at a rate decided by a government presided over by an English PM. This is a gift to those who argue for Scottish nationalism.

That is not to say that the present system is wholly in balance. I can see no reason or justification for a Scottish MP to be the English minister for health (as John Reid was) or English minister for transport (as Douglas Alexander is). But removing one anomaly by introducing an even greater anomaly is no solution.