Respect?

David Cameron visited Scotland yesterday and had this to say...

Sky.

On his first trip since becoming Prime Minister, David Cameron has said he wants to win Scotland's respect.

The coalition chief was accompanied on his visit to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh by the Secretary of State for Scotland, Lib Dem Danny Alexander.
They met Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond.
On arrival, Mr Cameron said: "I want to show my respect for the devolved institutions.
"I want to make the devolved institutions work and work well.
"I want a real agenda of respect between our parliaments."
He said he wanted Scottish ministers to appear in front of Westminster select committees and said if the Scottish Parliament wished it, he would travel to Holyrood ever year to answer MSPs' questions.
Mr Cameron went on: "I want to try and win Scotland's respect as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

That's all very well Dave, but how about some respect for England, after all we're the ones who put you where you are. How about dealing with the democratic deficit that means England is the only recognised country in the EU that doesn't have its own Parliament. How about dealing with the West Lothian question which allows MP's from other nations in the UK to vote on matters pertaining only to England in which they don't have to answer to their own constituents? How about tackling the Barnett formula and converting it if you must to a true needs based fund, rather than a syphon on English spending to hand over to the devolved parliaments in the UK? After all it leaves you facing this sort of thing...

Mr Salmond is expected to press Mr Cameron for Scotland to receive about £700m of additional cash.

He wants the Scottish Government to be able to bring forward further spending.
He is also calling for Scotland to receive money as a consequence of Olympic spending and for cash for renewable energy projects in the fossil fuel levy fund to be released.

I don't see too much respect coming back your way Dave, just an outstretched hand asking for more English cash. I doubt you'd get that much respect if you handed it over either, just a demand for more. The term were looking at here is not respect, you may want respect Dave, but what they want is appeasement, a form of Dane Geld, a you pay us to stay quiet fund, or hush money if you want it put bluntly.
In a sense Dave, what you're seen as by Alex Salmond is another Neville Chaimberlain, an appeaser, he has his own agenda which is Scottish independence, which stands at total odds to your unionism, so he sees nothing wrong in soaking the UK government for readies, after all it's not like he plans to stay now is it? Not exactly mutual respect really, but he sees your weakness and plays on it, no doubt you'll oblige and wonder why your popularity nose dives in England. Salmond also claims you have no mandate for Scotland (conveniently forgetting that your Lib Dem partners have a greater mandate in Scotland than he does in the UK Parliament) The way to deal with this is not by bribes though, but by tough but fair policies, if there's pain to go around, then we all share until one or the other decides to leave. Salmonds Scotland cannot be allowed to escape the cut backs, nor claim extra resources needed elsewhere.

Time to grow a spine Dave, if respect is due, it's due to those who voted you in to sort things out, not to hand over their taxes to those who would leave if they could. We don't mind fairness, we do object to Dane Geld!