They won’t support a break-up even though it would be to their advantage, says richard ehrman |
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As he reminded them at the opening of this week's Tory conference, David Cameron is as determined as ever to make his party more representative of the country it aspires to govern.
Hard to quarrel with that; but looking around the hall in Bournemouth yesterday, one could not help wondering just which country it is that Cameron hopes to lead?
At the recent Labour and Lib Dem conferences, Scottish and Welsh MPs were ten-a-penny. By contrast, the Conservatives today have become an almost entirely English affair.
In 2005 they won a majority of the popular vote in England, they dominate English local government and they have the largest number of English MEPs. But in Scotland and Wales they can muster just one MP apiece.
Yet while the Tories can no longer claim to |
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| Independence for Scotland might well deny Labour the chance to rule in England – maybe for ever |
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be a genuinely national party, they remain far keener on the Union than their rivals. Ask the representatives in Bournemouth this week whether, if there were a hung parliament, they should join forces with the Scottish Nationalists, and you would get a dusty reply.
Point out that independence for Scotland might well deny Labour the chance to rule in England - maybe for ever - and you still would not change their mind.
This week, we shall hear a lot about the need for English votes on English laws. With Gordon Brown expected to lead Labour, it's obviously a good subject for the Tories. But do not expect the debate to go any further than that.
If the Tories are worried that the Scots and Welsh stopped voting for them 15 years ago, it is not something they want to talk about - and certainly not in public. It may be sentimental, it may even be irrational, but for the Conservatives, for the foreseeable future, discussion of the Union will remain strictly off-limits. 
FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 3, 2006
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