dictionary day one: devolution

devolution: n 1 the delegation of power, esp by central government to local or regional administration; 2a descent or passing on through a series of stages, b descent by natural succession from one to another of property or qualities; 3 the lapse of an unexercised right to an ultimate owner; 4 (biol) degeneration

i was slightly dreading starting the dictionary project tbh, i wondered how i would follow the great blips that had gone before if i picked out ghastly words. thankfully day one proved nice and straightforward, as well as pretty apt considering it was election results day in england but not scotland.

devolution has been good and bad for scotland/wales/n ireland and for england on the other side. england gets to look at what is being acheived elsewhere (free prescriptions, frozen council tax, making class sizes smaller) and wonders why it's not getting any; the regions look at england and think 'let us deal with *all* our own affairs' - a great case being that scotland has little control over its own electoral processes.

devolution has also given us the famous 'west lothian question' ... briefly, a question was asked of the government in westminster about the fact scottish mps can vote on issues that only affect england but english mps don't get to vote on issues that have been devolved to scotland. asked by tam dayell, the mp for west lothian - hence the name - and never yet answered.

i like parts of devolution, but the scottish parliament building, above is not one of them. tho it has provided blips in the past (another angle and halo effect to name but two). in the harsh bright sunlight of 3pm today it was tough getting a decent shot - all that concrete reflects too much. i almost gave you alistair gray's words ('work as if you live in the early days of a better nation') which are carved into a stone on one side of the building, but frankly i wanted to show off the silver and blue of this shot of the msps' office windows. the architecture is insane and awful and as a building it does not function well nor impress as i think it should. but it's definitely devolution. possibly even definition 4, as the concrete starts to wear out...