Brown not the man to rule
Barring a miracle, it seems Labour's best spin-doctor, the patently brooding and bullying Gordon Brown, is to be foisted on to the people of England as the next prime minister.
He is, of course, only elected by his Scottish constituents to represent them in Westminster with regards to non-devolved matters, such as UK taxation, defence and foreign affairs.
But, under the current, manifestly unfair, system the prime minister's main function is to act as "first minister" of England.
As a consequence, Brown has no electoral mandate from his constituents, and certainly none from England, to deal with the bulk of the job.
Brown was one of the main architects of devolution, whereby Scotland became semi-independent, gets a big say in the running of England, gets subsidies from the English taxpayers, but English MPs have no say in its internal affairs.
In his "humble" acceptance speech on May 17 he went on about how he would focus on education, the NHS, affordable housing and building safe, secure and sustainable communities - but these are things that, due to devolution, he cannot deal with in his native Scotland - or for that matter in Wales or Northern Ireland.
Recent opinion polls show 67 per cent of the people of England want an English Parliament and 58 per cent of the English also want Scotland to have independence.
Edward Higginbottom, Shrewsbury
