Hard to Swallow?

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"The fact that the Scottish Parliament is a temporary institution, is actually quite a fact that's not known by many people, it could be abolished by Westminster tomorrow. They can legislate on anything to do with Scottish Parliament at anytime."

Willie Rennie.

Willie Rennie - "Scottish Parliament is a temporary institution..." (youtube.com)

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That wee clip of Willie Rennie giving forth on the powers of the Scottish parliament has always stuck with us. We're unsure of the precise date/venue but we believe it was in 2014. (If anyone has a fuller version to provide context we would love to see it.)

It raises obvious points.

Firstly, it explains why Willie Rennie was always such a fun guy to be around. If we wasn't pretending to be a wizard or doing zip-wire challenges, he was always up for extravagant press engagements, especially those requiring that he run around and/or vault over objects designed to represent this or that Libdem policy.

It also helps explain why so many politicians in the Scottish parliament don't appear to take their jobs seriously. If it's common knowledge in Holyrood that what Rennie stated is true (and we have no reason to suspect that it isn't) then they could hardly be blamed for keeping their heads down and taking the dosh while the going's good.

But it also raises a serious ethical question which goes to the heart of general discontent with devolved government and is being raised increasingly as independence supporters become more aware of the constitutional arguments raised by SALVO/ISP.

How can anyone, in good faith, publicly swear allegiance to another nation's monarch in order to be accepted into their own nation's government?

"I, [name of Member], do swear that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to His Majesty King Charles, His heirs and successors, according to Law, so help me God."

WTF is that all about?

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