By Rab Bruce’s Spider

Lord George Foulkes was at it again recently, calling for the creation of a second chamber of legislature within Scotland in order to prevent the SNP creating laws without effective scrutiny and challenge.

Now, there are plenty of countries in the world who have two chambers within their system of government, the UK being one of them. This is known as a bicameral system. I was recently unfortunate enough to be chatting to some No voters who insisted Foulkes was correct and that every Parliament must have a second chamber which can scrutinise and challenge laws which might have been rushed through a lower chamber and passed by virtue of a Parliamentary majority. I was assured that the House of Lords provides a good example of how this can work, simply on the basis that they challenged the recent Tax Credit plans of the Tory Government and are also unhappy with the Scotland Bill’s fiscal provisions.

OK, this is a fair point and I’m not necessarily advocating that Scotland must stick with a unicameral system (that’s one legislative chamber, i.e. the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood). However, I did a bit of checking and discovered a list of countries which seem to manage perfectly well with only one legislative chamber. Admittedly, there are a few basket cases on the list, such as North Korea and Greece, and there are lots of smaller countries where you can understand that the size of the nation does not necessarily warrant the expense of a second chamber. There are also some effective dictatorships such as Egypt and Syria, along with a smattering of former Communist countries.

But, and here’s the interesting thing, there are also perfectly normal small to medium-sized countries such as New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Slovakia and Sweden. And there’s China, the largest country in the world by population although its single-Party system makes a second chamber redundant.

You can check the list at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicameralism#Concept

It is also worth noting that many countries with federal systems of government, such as the USA, Switzerland and Germany, have unicameral State legislatures within their federated components. Bearing in mind that many of these federal units have populations larger than Scotland, this doesn’t appear to be a problem in those countries either.

It must also be remembered that a bicameral system is no guarantee that bad laws will not be passed. In the UK, for example, the Government can usually force things through eventually and, in some cases, immediately. The recent House of Commons debate on bombing in Syria resulted in RAF jets dropping bombs within a few hours of the vote, with the House of Lords conspicuously not involved in scrutinising the decision.

And, while the list of countries with unicameral legislatures contains some places that can be reasonably regarded as politically unstable, the list of bicameral states has its fair share as well, including places like Afghanistan, Colombia, Mexico, Myanmar and Pakistan.

There is an argument that a unicameral system works best when no single party has an overall majority. If coalition or minority Government is the order of the day, opposition Parties can usually ensure that the Government is unable to push laws through. In Scotland, of course, the electoral system was designed to prevent any one Party gaining such an advantage. The problem now is that the opposition Parties have shown themselves to be so inept or out of step with the wishes of a vast section of the electorate that the SNP have been able to gain the unexpected position of majority Government.

I’m not saying that there isn’t necessarily a need for discussion on whether a second chamber is required. I don’t think it is really necessary under the current devolved administration but the situation might be different in an independent Scotland. Then again, it might still not be necessary and a great deal of thought would need to go into the composition of such a second chamber and how its members should be elected. What I am saying is that we should not rush to accept the Unionist view that a second chamber is essential because, as other countries have demonstrated, that is simply not true.