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The Commons backed the Welfare

Reform and Work Bill by 308 to 124

votes, a majority of 184. 184 Labour

MPs abstained. The SNPwho all

voted against the billhave claimed

that they are now the real party of

the opposition. Those abstaining

included leadership contenders

Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and

Andy Burnham. The partys only

Scottish MP, Ian Murray also failed

to vote.

The bill will see the introduction of

a welfare cap and the restriction of

child tax credit to a claimant's first

two children. 95% of Scotland's

MPs voted against the cuts.

Commenting, the SNPs Fair Work

and Employment spokeswoman

Hannah Bardell MP said the deci-

sion would haunt the Labour par-

ty: "The Tories' cruel welfare cuts

damage the working poor and vul-

nerable people, and had to be op-

posed. Labour had the perfect oppor-

tunity to join the SNP in a progres-

sive coalition to oppose the Tories -

but with some honourable excep-

tions they sat on their hands."

The left wing Child Poverty Action

Group and the Tory thinktank the

Institute for Fiscal Studies both find

that more than half of children living

in poverty have parents who work

low paid jobs. In a column for the

Guardian, Tory Chancellor George

Osborne welcomed Labour's support

for the cuts.

Responding to the debate last night,

Angus Robertson, the SNP West-

minster Groups leader retweeted an

old Better Together tweet:

Remember this he asked, A vote

for Scotland to stay in the UK is a

vote to protect Scotland and the wel-

fare of Scottish people.

Something extraordinary happened a

a number of days ago in the House

of Commons chamber. The result

was greeted by deafening cheers -

which, by definition, came almost

exclusively from non-Scottish MPs.

The result among elected Scottish

MPs was well over 50 in favour of

Full Fiscal Autonomy (Home Rule),

and only 3 against. Among non-

Scottish MPs, there must have been

almost 500 votes against Full Fiscal

Autonomy, and probably less than

10 in favour. In a nutshell, then, this

was a straightforward battle between

Scotland and the rest of the UK -

and Scotland lost. We lost simply

because there are far more of 'them'

than there are of 'us'. The fact that

this happened on an exclusively

Scottish piece of legislation, at a

time when we're constantly told that

Scotland has no business having any

influence at all on English laws, is

nothing short of breathtaking.

What did English Tory and Labour

MPs think they were cheering

about? Did they persuade the Scot-

tish electorate of the case against

Home Rule? No. Did they persuade

Scotland's MPs? No. Scotland said

Yes, but the London parties said No,

and they presume to decide on our

behalf. By logical deduction, it can

only be that they were consciously

cheering overruling a democratic

election result and got away with it.

Or rather, they think they have.

ISSUE 1

Deafening cheers as

Westminster celebrates

English votes blocking

Scottish Home Rule

Labour ABSTAIN on Tory cuts to tax credits
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SNP MP Pete Wishart has written

to Prime Minister David Cameron

calling on him to think again on

proposals for English Votes for

English Laws.

Under plans announced earlier this

week, Scottish MPs face being un-

able to vote on issues impacting

Scotland including matters af-

fecting Scotlands budget.

In his letter, SNP Shadow Leader

of the House of Commons Pete

Wishart writes:

The proposals outlined in the

House of Commons on Thursday

are nothing less than a constitution-

al outrage that will see Scottish

MPs cut out of voting on matters

which impact Scotland and our

budget. Quite simply, they will

reduce the rights of Scottish MPs

to protect the interests of their con-

stituents.

Your partys attempts to restrict

the rights of Scottish MPs at West-

minster come at the same time as

you propose a totally inadequate

Scotland Bill which does not live

up to the recommendations of the

Smith Commission and fails to un-

derstand the changing political

landscape in Scotland. Last week,

58 out of Scotland's 59 MPs voted

to strengthen the Scotland Bill,

which means that your support is

limited to one single Scottish MP,

who is rejecting the views of the

other 58.

And while you plan to introduce

an English double majority rule

to the Westminster system, the

people of Scotland are being de-

nied a double majority to stop

Scotland being dragged out of the

EU against our will. It seems your

party will go to great lengths to

avoid having to listen to the needs

and concerns of the people of Scot-

land.

Indeed, it seems hard to equate

your proposals with the stated aims

of your party when it comes to the

constitutional integrity of the UK.

It is difficult to think of any meas-

ure more likely to undermine that

constitutional integrity and the fu-

ture of the Union which you claim

to support.

During the referendum, we were

repeatedly told by yourself and

others campaigning for a No vote

that the UK was a family of na-

tions - and each nation had equal

standing in that family. In the

weeks and months since the refer-

endum, the UK Government has

made a mockery of this.

On 7 May 2015, the people of

Scotland voted in unprecedented

numbers for a strong team of 56

SNP MPs to represent them at

Westminster. We will not stand for

your partys attempts to see Scot-

lands voice stifled and our influ-

ence reduced. The SNP will op-

pose these plans at Westminster

and we ask you to think again on

these disrespectful proposals which

are damaging to Scotland.

Lords amendments to Bill 'add insult to injury' Commenting on news that the

Scotland Bill will face amend-

ments in the House of Lords, while

the UK Government ignored

amendments supported by 58 of

Scotlands 59 MPs, SNP spokes-

person on the House of Lords

Kirsty Blackman said:

It is an affront to democracy in

the 21st century that there remains

a legislative chamber completely

unaccountable to the electorate

and that this out of touch, unelect-

ed group looks set to have more

influence on amending the Scot-

land Bill than Scotlands MPs is

completely absurd.

Just last week, 58 of Scotlands

59 MPs voted for amendments to

the Scotland Bill and were over-

ruled by the Tory government with

just a single Scottish MP the fact

that the Tories now look set to take

on board amendments from the

unelected Lords simply adds insult

to injury.

SNP demand Cameron thinks again on EVEL plans


David Mundell and David Camer-

on need to understand that they

cannot simply bypass the demo-

cratic will of people in Scot-

land. They should recognise the

unprecedented mandate given to

the SNP at the General Election

and deliver the powers that Scot-

land voted for rather than demon-

strating Tory arrogance in ignoring

Scotlands voice while listening to

the democratic absurdity of the

House of Lords.

Tories vote to keep veto over Holyroods welfare powers

TORY MPs voted to keep West-

minsters veto over the Scottish

Parliaments new welfare powers

during the debate on the Scotland

Bill in the House of Commons. It

was the third day of scrutiny of the

Bill and the Conservative Govern-

ment refused to accept any amend-

ments put forward by the SNP or

Labour.

Despite cross-party consensus from

just about every Scottish MP on

scrapping the vetoes in the Scot-

land Bill, Secretary of State for

Scotland David Mundell refused to

budge and claimed that no such

veto existed despite the report

from the Scottish Parliaments

cross-party Devolution (Further

Powers) Committee saying that it

did.

Dr Eilidh Whiteford, the SNPs

spokesperson on social justice and

welfare, said Mundell was acting

as if he believed the other parties

were a oot o step but oor Jock.

As well as the amendment to scrap

the veto, there were votes in the

House of Commons debate that, if

passed, would have devolved Na-

tional Insurance, employment sup-

port programmes and housing ben-

efit to Holyrood. All were defeat-

ed. A Labour amendment to allow

the Scottish Government to top up

reserved benefits, and mitigate

against Tory cuts, was also defeat-

ed.

Speaking after the vote Whiteford

told The National she was very

disappointed. She added: Weve

seen so little willingness from the

Tory Government to listen to the

democratic aspirations of the peo-

ple of Scotland, and to progress

when it is clear that the over-

whelming majority of Scotlands

elected parliamentarians recognise

the need to remove the veto from

the Scotland Bill to bring it line

with Smith Commission recom-

mendations.

The Secretary of States position

seems to be Theyre aw oot o step,

but Oor Jock as theres huge con-

sensus from Scottish MPs that we

need to put this matter beyond all

doubt.

During the debate, SNP MP Pete

Wishart pointed out that so far the

Government had accepted no

amendments and expressed con-

cern that the Tories may try and

make changes to the Scotland Bill

in the House of Lords.

Responding for the Tories, Priti

Patel, Minister for Employment,

asked the SNP to give the Govern-

ment the benefit of the doubt.

Tory Scottish Secretary David

Mundell, who was described by

North Ayrshire and Arran MP Pa-

tricia Gibson as a shameless

colossal governor-general, said

the Bill did meet the spirit and sub-

stance of the Smith Commission

and the SNP amendments could be

described as Smith-plus.

Earlier in the day, Deputy First

Minister John Swinney wrote to

Mundell to criticise him for claim-

ing the two men had productive

discussions over the Scotland Bill.

He wrote: There will have to be

clear movement by the UK Gov-

ernment, otherwise it is becoming

harder to justify that description.

After the debate SNP leader in the

Commons, Angus Robertson, was

scathing of the Conservatives:

This was typical Tory arrogance

a single Tory MP refusing to listen

to the representatives of the people

of Scotland. We saw cross-party

support on the Opposition benches

for SNP amendments being voted

down by a Tory government with a

single MP in Scotland.


At a time of savage cuts to the

welfare state by the Tories caus-

ing real hurt to hard-working fami-

lies and vulnerable people, and

driving more and more people to

foodbanks the choice is between

having welfare powers in Scot-

lands hands, or leaving them in

the hands of Iain Duncan Smith

and George Osborne.

Unionist Academic In Sexist Tirade Against Youngest Scottish MP

A prominent female academic has

described new SNP MP Mhairi

Black as a "slut". The derogatory

comments came from Jill Stephen-

son, an historian, prominent unionist

and emeritus professor at the Uni-

versity of Edinburgh who goes by

the twitter name

@Historywoman.

The insults thrown by the historian

towards Black, the youngest MP in

the House of Commons, prompted

the SNP to call for everyone in-

volved in the debate over Scotland's

political future to be "respectful at

all times".

The row over Stephenson's attack on

Black comes against a backdrop of

widespread unionist press attention

on so-called 'cybernats'. When one

tweeter questioned the calibre of the

SNP candidates, Stephenson said:

"They aren't even the worst. Have

you seen/heard the appalling harri-

dan Mhairi Black? Foul mouthed

little slut." In a separate thread she

remarks: "If electors vote for a foul-

mouthed slut like M Black, it says a

lot about them, and none of it is

good."

Before the referendum, Edinburgh-

born Stephenson was described by

one newspaper as "one of the most

compelling voices in support of the

Union" as an essayist, letter writer,

blogger and a member of the Finan-

cial Times' readers' panel.

ITS beyond doubt that the social

security system needs reform. In

Scotland we want to create a fairer

and simpler system that does not

stigmatise people who claim bene-

fits, but treats them with dignity

and respect.

We have pushed these as priorities

and argued that the Scotland Bill

needs to be strengthened to help

lift people out of poverty. Our mes-

sage is clear: we want to create a

fairer Scotland.

But there are huge challenges

ahead. The Scotland Bills pro-

posals for welfare devolution cur-

rently fail to deliver on the recom-

mendations of the Smith Commis-

sion and ignore the key recommen-

dation that the Scottish Parliament

should have powers to create new

benefits in devolved areas.

Any serious attempt to tackle ine-

quality has to focus on in-work

power and powers over the mini-

mum wage, employment policy

and benefits which would allow us

to build a coherent approach to

training, education and support for

people out of work or experiencing

in-work poverty.

Instead, we are faced with deeper

cuts which will impact on some of

the most vulnerable people in our

society.

Just last week we learned that

210,000 children are living in rela-

tive poverty in Scotland after hous-

ing costs have been paid. Stripping

back the welfare budget could be

even more devastating. Equally,

cutting tax credits without increas-

ing earnings will impoverish more

families.

The Scottish Government and

groups and charities that work with

people who receive benefits are

united in our opposition to West-

minsters proposed 12 billion cuts

and we are working together to use

our new powers to develop policies

better suited to the people of Scot-

land.

One of the worst parts of Westmin-

sters changes to the welfare sys-

tem is that it is being done without

reference to those who rely on so-

cial security. People are not being

asked how they can be helped to

play their full part in our society,

what would help them get back

into work, what their care require-

ments are or what they need to live

independent lives.

The Scottish Government will not

follow that approach. That is why

we held a discussion last week

with stakeholders over the pro-

posed new powers, and we will be

listening to the people affected by

the UK Governments welfare

changes and cuts, and getting their

views.

Once the UK Government con-

firms whether it will deliver the

full social security and employ-

ment powers, and whether it will

listen to the Deputy First Minis-

ters proposals for additional pow-

ers, we will set out how the Scot-

tish Government can take a more

comprehensive approach to social

security and getting people into

work.

Margaret Burgess, Scotlands Housing and Welfare Minister: We need to work together to create a fairer benefit system for Scotland

FROM elsewhere: The mission of The Vow is

reproduce news found online and in pro-

democracy papers regarding the ongoing fight

for democracy and autonomy. This is a

volunteer venture which runs at a loss and is

produced to inform the Scottish public on the

facts the newspapers and the press leave behind.

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