Ditching devo or the Nats
As Rishi Sunak calls a UK general election for July 4 - Independence Day in the US and schools’ summer hols north of the border - Scotland is pondering what 25 years of devolution have brought
In 1974, half a century ago, I quit The Scotsman to join London Weekend TV’s prestigious Sunday midday current affairs show Weekend World but took a break first to travel around the US armed with a $99 for 99 days Greyhound ticket.
At an early stopover with friends in Washington DC I frequented the Library of Congress and did more research for and completed an - overblown sub-Gramscian - essay on Devolution and Democracy that became Chapter 2 of the Red Paper on Scotland, edited by Gordon Brown, then (student) Rector of Edinburgh Uni.
The future Labour Chancellor and Prime Minister said of the proposed Assembly then being hotly debated: “It allows the framing of distinctly Scottish policies to meet social needs and requirements. It gives Scottish people a focus for bargaining with Westminster and Brussels - and gives Scottish socialists the chance to lead and influence other regions and other countries.”
Gordon and the authors he gathered together for his book project saw devolution of power from Westminster (and Brussels) as paving the way for the Scottish road(s) to socialism. More crudely, in the run-up to the 1997 general election, the then shadow Scottish Secretary George Robertson, (in)famously said it would “kill the SNP stone dead.” Of course, it has done neither.
The opening of the Scottish Parliament 25 years ago this year has been widely remembered in events and debates resonating with phrases such as “emergence of a vibrant political culture” built upon “openness, accountability, equal opportunities and power-sharing” and embracing “hope for a new politics” (symbolised by a hemispheric chamber). This was said at an extremely tame armchair chat in mid-May between Nicola Sturgeon and Jim Wallace, the first deputy first minister (under Donald Dewar).
The reality is, as usual, much more prosaic. Writing this as Rishi Sunak calls a general election on July 4, the devolution settlement is even under question, with some Conservatives acting sometimes as if they would ditch devo itself. Others, including Brown, contemplate a wider constitutional rearrangement towards (quasi-)federalism throughout the UK. Year 5 of Brexit and the so-called recovery of parliamentary sovereignty is witness to both political stagnation/popular disenchantment and yet, under the surface, new thinking about modernising the British constitution.
Scottish small-c conservatism
Here in Scotland, where support for independence has reverted to the 45% recorded at the referendum a decade ago after peaking at or just over 50% but that for the SNP is declining to between 30 and 35% (Westminster/Holyrood), we are, however, simply tinkering with ideas. Better the devil you know…
That Sturgeon-Wallace bosie flirted with ideas of giving the Scottish Parliament’s committees greater powers, with the former first minister even admitting the Westminster model had some merit, of reducing the centralisation of power within the executive and of ridding political discourse of its increasing toxicity and polarisation (a disingenuous Sturgeon raised this). Elsewhere, there’s been vague talk of a new constitutional convention or fully-fledged citizens’ assembly to look at ideas such as a second chamber at Holyrood.
According to the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey a majority (63% ) thinks a Scottish Parliament gives ordinary people more of a say in how Scotland is governed while a similar proportion (64% ) believes Scotland has won a stronger voice in the UK. The Scottish Elections Study shows three-quarters of Scottish voters think devo is a good thing but the numbers believing it makes a difference are declining.
SNP ministers naturally are talking up their achievements in 17 years of power: “As a result of decisions being made in Scotland by those the people of Scotland elect, not by Westminster, Scottish education provision is better, the Scottish NHS has more protection, crime is lower, and Scotland’s tax system is more progressive,” Shona Robison, Deputy First Minister, intoned this month against huge evidence to the contrary. (See Laurie Macfarlane here.)
The forthcoming UK general election will be about…”economic stability” à la Sunak or Starmer. In Scotland it will be a SNP-Scottish Labour dogfight but it would be great to start a genuine debate about the country’s constitutional and economic future en route to the Holyrood elections in two years time. About who and what government/parliament can best deliver for the 5.4m Scots. We’ve had enough performance rhetoric over the past 25 years. Let’s see real change and improvement in people’s lives. And some of that new politics at last.