Huge problem for Gordon Brown

Peter Oborne (Whitehall): The victory of the SNP has an historic importance which stretches way beyond Scotland. It has created a new architecture for British politics. Specifically, I do not think it is possible any longer for a Labour Party which has been rejected north of the border to use its Scottish MPs to enforce its will in English issues. Last autumn Scottish MPs helped the Labour government secure a narrow majority of 35 in a Bill abolishing the right to jury trial in serious fraud cases. They did so even though this did not apply in Scotland which has a separate legal system. I felt this removal of ancient English liberties very keenly indeed. It seemed to me casual and presumptuous that it was made possible by a group of people who had no personal stake in the matter: precisely the kind of thoughtless and disrespectful exercise of power which so inflamed the Scots when the English did it to them. I am not writing this as an English nationalist. On the contrary, I believe very strongly in the union. But a basic equity is involved here. The SNP win has precipitated a constitutional crisis. Gordon Brown has been very unlucky indeed. He will have to find a solution to the conundrum thrown up by the SNP victory, or he will not be able to govern.