SCOTS feel alienated from the “London-centric system” in the Union despite an affinity with people living in England and Wales, Gordon Brown has said.
New polling commissioned by the former Labour Prime Minister’s thinktank Our Scottish Future found only 17 per cent of Scots felt a “common bond” with those in London.
The FocalData survey found around two-third of Scots thought they did not have common bonds with Londoners, who they saw as generally having “different values”.
READ MORE: Scottish Labour back Starmer's oil and gas ban despite union concern
This pulled down the figure for feelings towards “English people in general” – with 33% of Scots saying they had a common bond, against 52% who said they did not.
However Scots said ‘yes’ by large margins when it came to feeling a common bond with Geordies (58%), the Welsh (57%) and Liverpudlians (46%).
Mr Brown’s recent report for the Labour party urged reform of the constitutional settlement within the Union, including replacing the House of Lords with an elected senate.
He will argue the case in person at an Our Scottish Future event in Edinburgh on Thursday evening alongside the Labour First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and the actress and writer Arabella Weir will also speak.
Mr Brown said: “Our poll shows that Scotland’s problem is with Whitehall, Westminster and a London-centric system.
“Many parts of the rest of the UK also feel detached from a centralised state.
“[Thursday’s speakers] will talk about how, across the whole of the United Kingdom, we can fight for change we can believe in.”
READ MORE: SNP minister Angus Robertson facing fine over company accounts
SNP deputy leader Keith Brown, who will today lead a Holyrood debate accusing the UK Government of systematically attacking devolution, said: “Scotland is suffering from ever-tightening Westminster control.
"Independence, by contrast, will mean a partnership of equals with our friends in the rest of the UK.
“Scotland was ignored by Westminster when we were forced out of the EU.
"And Keir Starmer and Gordon Brown’s Labour Party are as determined as the Tories to impose a hard Brexit on Scotland – which means lower living standards and higher food prices.
“Independent European countries that are like Scotland are both fairer and wealthier than the UK. So with all our talent and resources, why not Scotland?
“Keir Starmer has done absolutely nothing to protect Scotland from the Tories but with independence we can get rid of Tory governments Scotland doesn’t vote for, for good.”
FocalData polled 1,011 people between May 9 and 15.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel