Via The Scotsman:
- DAVID Cameron has installed Annabel Goldie in his shadow Cabinet in London as part of his strategy to bring Holyrood and Westminster closer together.
Goldie, below, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, will attend shadow Cabinet meetings once a month as the Tories attempt to build stronger links between Edinburgh and London in the run-up to the General Election.
This is presented as somewhat of a step up for Goldie, and as a nice natural Unionist friendly link building exercise.
But is that really the case? In a sense Cameron has pulled rank, and it is a centralising move that seems out of step with decentralising message that Cameron is currently pushing. It certainly seems to limit the the freedom of action that Goldie might otherwise have; even Labour FMs occassionally defied the wishes of the government at Westminster, for example over the smoking ban. If the Tories were in government in London, and Goldie in coalition in Scotland, would she be a member of the cabinet and thus bound by cabinet collective responsibility?
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