Mister Popularity

The amount of commenting has dropped rapidly over my last few posts.

Could it be that no one else shares a passion for NHL Hockey and obscure British constitutional issues?

Nah!

Was it the Lack of Oxygen?

One of the great things about being a hockey fan is the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Unlike many other sports' playoff structures, like the NFL's, the Stanley Cup Playoffs' series structure allows the events to unfold at the game level, the series level and the playoff level all at the same time.

Yesterday's game between the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (their last year with this Disney-inspired name; next year they will simply be the Ducks) and the Colorado Avalanche was a case in point.

On the game level, it was a match up between two hard-charging teams who have played brilliantly this season and a clash of the two best GMs in the sport (LaCroix and Burke). On the series level, the big story was Anaheim goalie Ilya Bryzgalov's amazing three game shutout streak, extending back to the Game 7 winner against Calgary. Could he extend this remarkable feat and break the record by holding the opponents scoreless for more than 270 minutes? On the playoff level, the Ducks had toughened up and shed their nice-guy image (really a hold-over from the Kariya years) and gone nose-to-nose with the Flames, while Colorado had dispatched a talented Stars team with ease.

And then the game starts and you begin to realize that you're seeing something very special. You can love a game and watch it for years and still see something you've never seen before that takes your breath away.

Colorado struck first, ending Bryzgalov's scoreless streak at an amazing 249 minutes. 1-0 Avs. In the second, young Duck Right Winger (as you may have guessed, my favorite hockey position!) Joffrey Lupul scored the equalizer. 1-1 tie.

In the third, the Av's Jim Dowd scored a scrappy, short-handed goal that electrified the crowd, giving the Avs a 2-1 lead and lighting up the Pepsi Center. The sense of relief, of finally breaking through the stifling defense the Ducks had thrown at them was readily seen, even through the medium of TV.

About 4 minutes later on a nice shot, the Ducks tied the game at 2-2 when Lupul put in another. "Nice looking kid, this Lupul," thought I.

Two minutes later, Lupul pops in another, stunning the crowd. This put the Ducks up 3-2, and threatening to take a series 3-0 lead, with only 9 minutes left in regulation. A Hat Trick! And in the playoffs, no less! What a night this Lupul is having!

Ah, but the Avs are never out, not with guys like Sakic and Blake around. Rob Blake blew a hard, hard shot past Bryzgalov with 6:30 to go, tying the game at 3-3. Then, in the final minute, the Avs were buzzing around the net, desperately trying to score the game winner, as the Ducks and Bryzgalov flopped around trying to stop the onslaught.

Regulation ends, and we go to sudden death overtime. Like most OTs in the playoffs, the teams circled each other tentatively, not wanting to make a stupid mistake. As the minutes go by, that caution lessens as the blood begins to flow and tired legs begin to protest.

With 3:30 to go in overtime, the Ducks score on a stolen puck lifted from Colorado's Patrice Brisebois on a hard shot.

Who scored the winning goal?

Joffrey Lupul.

Or, as the ESPN headline has it this morning, the final score was:

Joffrey Lupul 4, Colorado Avalanche 3.

The Dreaded West Lothian Question

There has been lots of comment floating around regarding Prime Minister Blair's cabinet re-shuffle. Let the record show that the Lord Sisyphus disapproves mightily of Margaret Beckett as Foreign Minister and is deeply alarmed at the damage done to that august ministry by the creation by the Prime Minister of a separate "Minister for Europe" whose apparent portfolio happens to fall squarely upon the Foreign Office's most important foreign policy concern. One expects knife figting in Whitehall in a fortnight's time. Lord Sisyphus also is of the belief that Blair missed an obvious opportunity to do away with the deeply stupid and made-up "Deputy Prime Minister" portfolio. Shockingly, milord Sisyphus' views were not solicited by Number 10 prior to the decisions being made.

The re-shuffle does, though, raise an interesting question, one with a capital "Q" in fact. Since devolution there has been one question about the future of the British Constitution that has gone largely unanswered: the West Lothian Question.

"What is this question all about?," I hear you ask. Glad you asked. Here are the actual questions, posed in Parliament ages ago by then MP for West Lothian Tam Dalyell:

How can it be right that MPs elected to Westminster from Scottish constituencies have no ability to affect the issues of their constituents which have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament, and

If power over Scottish affairs is devolved to a Scottish Parliament, how can it be right that MPs representing Scottish constituencies in the Parliament of the United Kingdom will have the power to vote on issues affecting England (including those that don't affect Scotland), but English MPs will not have the power to vote on Scottish issues?

When Dalyell asked his famous Question the matter was purely hypothetical. With the enactment of the Scotland Act in 1998, which established the devolved Scottish Parliament, the matter became all too real. Right now in Parliament sit Scottish MPs who regularly vote on matters of exclusive concern to England, which does not have its own devolved parliament, while similarly-situated English MPs are barred from having any say over similar issues touching upon Scotland.

The obvious answer to the question is an English Parliament, but in the meantime it appears that PM Blair has stumbled deep in to the West Lothian thicket by naming Scottish MP John Reid to the Home Office. As Lord Baker (Ken Baker, former Home Secretary and Chairman of the Conservative Party during the Thatcher years) writes in today's Telegraph letters page:

Sir - The appointment of John Reid, MP for Motherwell North, Lanarkshire, as Home Secretary, and of Douglas Alexander, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire, as Transport Secretary is an affront to all English voters. Mr Reid will be responsible for the English police, prisons and criminal justice system, but as these matters have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament, he will have no say on them in his own constituency. He can tell the Lancashire police force what to do, but not his own in Lanarkshire. An injustice of the same kind led to his being relieved of his post as health secretary. Mr Alexander will be responsible for English roads, railways and airports, but will have no say on those in Scotland. So both Mr Reid and Mr Alexander will have to make controversial decisions in a country no part of which they represent. Tony Blair, in his twilight months, has failed to recognise the inevitable consequences of his devolution of powers to Scotland, which he introduced in his bright dawn.

Lord Baker of Dorking, London SW1

Has the Prime Minister unwittingly set off a constitutional crisis?

When the Prime Minister took a wrecking ball to the stately facade of the British Constitution, traditionalists like myself warned of unforeseen consequences. But here, surely, is a foreseen consequence seemingly completely ignored. Constitutions are not playthings, nor should they be subject to the passing passion of a new administration.

Why should the English voter not conclude his or her vote isn't worth the bother of trudging to the polling place?