Scottish mafia

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The Scottish mafia, or Scottish Raj^[1], is a pejorative term used by English nationalists for a group of Scottish Labour Party politicians and broadcasters who they believe have undue influence over the government of the United Kingdom and in particular of England. The term is occasionally used in the UK press^[2]^[3] and in parliamentary debates.^[4]^[5]

References to a Scottish mafia are based on the perceived over-representation of Scottish Members of Parliament (MPs) in senior government posts (four cabinet ministers out of twenty four) and on the constitutional arrangements which give them a say in English affairs whilst denying English MPs and Scottish Westminster MPs a say in some Scottish affairs. The latter is known as the West Lothian question.

The 'Scottish raj' is seen to be a distinctively Labour - and, to a lesser extent - Liberal Democrat phenomenon, as the Celtic fringe and North of England have always seen strong support for these parties, whereas Conservative support is traditionally based in the South East of England.

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Nearing the end of Tony Blair's premiership, seven of the twenty-three Cabinet members are Scottish or were born in Scotland:^[6] When Gordon Brown followed Blair as Prime Minister in 2007 the number of Scottish cabinet members decreased. The seven Scots mentioned above are:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Former Prime Minister and Envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair (although he represented an English constituency (Sedgefield), is generally thought of as English, and self-identifies as English^[7], despite being born and schooled in Edinburgh)
Former Home Secretary John Reid
Defence Secretary Des Browne
Former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer (although he lived in London for almost thirty years before being promoted to the Cabinet).
Chancellor Alistair Darling (although he was born in England)
International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander

Prominent Scottish Labour cabinet members since 1997 include Robin Cook, George Robertson, Helen Liddell, Donald Dewar, Lord Irvine, David Clark, Gavin Strang, John Reid, Lord Falconer and Ian McCartney. However, some of these are members of the House of Lords and are based in London. Others, such as Ian McCartney and David Clark, although born in Scotland, lived in England for many years before being elected to the House of Commons for English constituencies. There are also several cases of English people being elected to the Commons for Scottish constituencies and to the Scottish Parliament, such as Shona Robison MSP and Mark Lazarowicz MP. However, the overwhelming majority of Cabinet Ministers under both Blair and Brown were always English. Prominent English Cabinet ministers included John Prescott, Geoff Hoon, Ruth Kelly, David Blunkett, Charles Clarke, Harriet Harman, Clare Short, Jack Straw, David Miliband, and Ed Balls.

Michael Martin is also a prominent Scottish politician as Speaker of the House of Commons, although the overwhelming majority of his predecessors as Speaker have been English.

Scottish broadcasters who cover the UK political scene include Kirsty Wark, James Naughtie, Andrew Marr and Andrew Neil. However, there are very many broadcasters who cover the UK political scene who are not Scottish.

Claims of a 'mafia' running British politics are not limited to the 'Scottish mafia'. In 1998 The Sun newspaper asked whether a 'gay mafia' was running the country, and there have been claims that Conservative leader David Cameron has surrounded himself with an elitist 'Eton mafia', also known as the 'Notting Hill set'.