Westminster 'utter contempt' could lead to Scottish independence, says former Labour First Minister

[Denzil_DC]

Scottish Parliament 20th anniversary: ‘Utter contempt’ by Westminster could lead to Scottish independence, says former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish

The chaos surrounding Brexit could lead directly to Scottish independence because Scots, Scottish politics and the Scottish Parliament have been treated with “utter contempt” by Westminster.

That is the view of former Scottish Labour leader and First Minister Henry McLeish who said that while his views on staying in the UK were “not as strong as they used to be”, he was a “federalist at heart” and wanted the Scottish Parliament to be more “assertive, more ambitious and more aggressive” in its relationship with Westminster.

In an exclusive sit-down interview with The Courier to mark the 20th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, the former Central Fife MP and MSP said the establishment of Holyrood in 1999 undoubtedly changed the face of Scottish politics forever because, for the first time since 1707, the nation had a legislator in Scotland.

But having chaired the constitutional steering group which set up the principles, the ideas, and the modus operandi which would be adopted by Holyrood, he said the Scottish Parliament’s creation might yet “change the nature of Westminster politics” given the scale of public disillusionment currently surrounding the Westminster status quo.

His greatest concern is the lack of will at Westminster to “re-shape the UK” or for the Scottish constitutional question to be taken more seriously.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/politics/scottish-politics/883878/scottish-parliament-20th-anniversary-utter-contempt-by-westminster-could-lead-to-scottish-independence-says-former-labour-first-minister-henry-mcleish/

We've all been rightly incensed at the lack of care over the Good Friday Agreement and a post-Brexit Irish border, but less ink has been spilled about the anger and disillusionment in Scotland at being totally sidelined in discussions about the shape of Brexit.

Scotland's not alone in this, of course. The 48% and counting who didn't vote for Brexit have been pilloried and ignored - until a substantial body of MPs across the House finally found their spines and took back some nominal control over the process. Not that it seems at the moment like this will lead to a more constructive outcome, but at least it's a gesture.

But Scotland voted 62% Remain, as did all 32 Scottish council areas. The 2014 Independence Referendum culminated in threats (among many others) that Scotland would lose its EU membership and be out in the cold if it left the UK:



Then there was The Vow, a series of airy last-minute promises about what would happen if Scotland voted to stay in the UK that was published on the Daily Record's front page:



Some of what was promised about greater devolution was delivered, albeit in watered-down form after it went through the Smith Commission, with Tory and Labour representatives opposing many aspects. The morning after the referendum, Cameron marked his triumph by announcing moves to impose a regime of "English Votes for English Laws" in the UK Parliament. Although this wasn't a particularly controversial decision (the SNP had long had a policy of abstaining on legislation that only applied to UK member countries other than Scotland), the timing couldn't have been more insensitive.

But since then, not least because of the preoccupation with Brexit, the devolution process has stalled, or even gone into reverse.

Some five years ago, the UK Goverment, through incompetence or calculation "lost" (or stole) EU top-up funding that was supposed to go to Scottish farmers:

SCOTTISH FARMERS have lost the battle over their unpaid ‘convergence’ cash, with Defra secretary, Michael Gove, finally admitting that they would not see any of the disputed £160m EU top-up that was awarded to Scotland but allocated elsewhere in the UK by David Cameron’s administration.

During an evidence session where Mr Gove was questioned by the Scottish Parliament’s rural economy and connectivity committee, he admitted that ‘mistakes had been made’: "That money has been allocated and is in the budgets of the various governments of the devolved administrations and we must respect the decisions of the coalition government."

https://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/news/16325444.michael-gove-admits-scottish-farmers-will-not-receive-160-million-lost-convergence-funding/

Gove - seen by some as a (albeit rather unlikely) Tory leadership contender - it was at the weekend who addressed the Scottish Tory Conference, where speaker after speaker, many not from Scottish constituencies, declared that they knew better than the Scottish Government what the Scottish people wanted - to a crowd of attendees that barely numbered 200 at peak. After the obligatory factually challenged swipes at the Scottish Government for its "obsession" with independence and "not getting on with the day job" (he's not short of a brass neck), during an onstage Q&A session Gove suggested that millions of pounds of funding (money that Scotland itself delivers to the UK's coffers, to then be doled out back to it) for certain functions could be withheld and spent in Scotland by UK Government ministers. Because nobody remembers the farm funding that went "missing", and all can see how effective Westminster has been at administration and responding to local needs over the years.

It was Scottish politicians who teamed up with QC Jolyon Maugham to pursue a long and arduous series of court cases that ended in the finding that the UK could withdraw Article 50 without suffering any penalty. Not only were they doing their own day jobs, they were doing May's government's as well.

Given the unpopularity of Brexit in Scotland, a cynical course of action would have been for Scottish independence-supporting politicians to allow it to grind away to its conclusion then see what polling benefits would accrue. Instead, good-faith attempts to have a constructive input into the process have been repeatedly spurned among the thrashing around of two dying parties in Westminster.

If and when Scotland does regain its independence, it will be as much, if not more, due to the efforts of Unionist politicians as anything the SNP and other independence-supporting politicians have done.

[T_i_B]

1. When I visited Edinburgh last year...

….it became obvious that Remain is a huge cause north of the Tweed. I'm a staunch unionist, but the SNP don't concern me nearly as much as bad Westminster politicians who purport to support the union whilst totally undermining it by totally ignoring Scottish concerns.

[Ghost Dog]

2. To maintain the UK, there should be a devolved English parliament

(or devolved regional English parliaments) concerning itself with English affairs. The Westminster UK parliament should be limited to discussing and legislating only matters which concern the UK as a whole (applying Thatcher's principle of 'subsidiarity').

It's amazing how many people here in Spain (particularly when discussing the Catalan separatist issue) think that Westminster is the English parliament, and Scotland subordinate to it. Scotland is an historical nation which entered into a voluntary parliamentary union with England. It is not and has never been an English region. Catalunya is a Spanish region with a devolved parliament, as have all other Spanish regions (autonomous communities) and with seats in the national Spanish parliament. It has never been a nation. No comparison.

Many recent Catalan regional government politicians and crony businessmen have been found to be profoundly corrupt, with non-taxpaying accounts in Andorra and further offshore. One hopes such is not Scotland's case.