Devolution and The F Bomb

In the Scottish Labour party’s in-house magazine we are told that ‘Labour plan to bypass Holyrood and give direct spending powers to Westminster-run Scotland Office’ – SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: Scottish Secretary Ian Murray’s department is to receive £150m to spend north of the border in a controversial shake-up.’

This is the sort of action expected from the Conservatives but now being delivered by Labour.

A Labour spokesman said: “There has clearly been a degree of incompetence within the Scottish Government and this legislation will allow the Scotland Office to invest directly where it sees fit rather than getting bogged down in bureaucracy.”

For ‘bureaucracy’ read ‘democracy’.

How are we to reconcile this with the message we were told for years: that Labour would commit to a widespread programme of constitutional reform including the mythic ‘reform of the House of Lords’ and strengthening devolution? How are we to reconcile this with the multitude of columns extolling the imminent strengthening of devolution powers or even Federalism that have been whitewashed from history?

Read about our “radical new plan for a federal UK” in the @Telegraph https://t.co/ye7DaabsJf

— Constitution Reform Group (@ActofUnionBill) August 3, 2019

Labour are abandoning the institution they created, an institution that was supported by 74% of Scots who voted for a devolved parliament to take control of Scottish affairs. They are breaking the Sewell Convention, The Smith Commission, and the Scotland Act of 2012.

This is the end of the era that lasted from the late 90s to today (I’m aware that Labour’s support for devolution was resisted then forced, contingent and opportunistic). But the hypocrisy and the Memory Hole at play is astonishing (or not). The list of politicians and scribes who told us that devolution would be enhanced, not undermined as part of deeper constitutional change is endless, here’s just some of them:

“Keir Starmer has asked Gordon Brown to develop plans to devolve more power across the UK and to rejuvenate the party in Scotland. Both in London and Edinburgh, there is hope that a distinctive new offer, which strategists are calling “radical federalism”.
– Chris Deerin, New Statesman 2021

“The British constitution has to reform, it’s broken, it needs to change. We are going to be as close, within a year or two, to a federal state as you can be in a country where one part of it, one nation, has 85% of the population. For centuries we held to this idea that Britain was a unitary state based on Westminster sovereignty, based on parliament being able to do what it wanted. None of that makes any sense any more.”
– Gordon Brown 2014

“Might the transfer of wide-ranging powers from Brussels, not only to Whitehall but also to the devolved administrations, provide an opportunity to revitalise our democracy through a newly federal UK? Important competencies relating to agriculture, fisheries and the environment will, unless the UK government legislates otherwise, return to the Scottish Parliament and to the Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies. Both the devolved and central governments will therefore see a dramatic increase in their powers.”
– Seema Syeda, The Constitutional Unit

“This would mean a radical reshaping of our country along federal lines where every component part of the United Kingdom – Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions – take more responsibility for what happens in their own communities. It would involve significant changes to how central government operates.”
– Kezia Dugdale ‘Scottish Labour calls for new federal state to unite UK after Brexit’ 2016

“This will make the devolved administrations more like equal partners to the UK government, and will mean, for the first time in the UK, genuine inter-governmental negotiations from which both sides need agreement.”
– Jim Gallagher

“Keir Starmer, the Labour leadership frontrunner, has called for a fully federal UK, devolving power to the nations and regions of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after Brexit. The shadow Brexit secretary said only a new federal structure for the UK could “repair the shattered trust in politics”
– Rowena Mason, Deputy Editor the Guardian 2020

“The Labour party is expected to set up a people’s convention to study radical reforms of the UK constitution, possible federalism and scrapping the House of Lords after Brexit.”
– Severin Carrell 2017

“I believe in our union of nations. I believe we are better together than any of us would be apart. I believe that each nation can speak with a progressive voice. But we need a new and durable constitutional settlement. Which is why I am delighted that Gordon Brown ’s Commission on the Future of the UK will chart a new course for our union of nations.”
– Keir Starmer 2022

In June of this year Labour announced it would “reset the relationship” between ScotGov & UK Gov, setting up “a new Council of the Nations and regions.” This would involve the Prime Minister, the FMs of Scotland and Wales, the FM and deputy FMs of Northern Ireland, and the Mayors of Combined Authorities.

This would effectively give Scotland and Wales the same status as Manchester.

There are several problems with this, apart from, you know completely going against the democratically expressed will of the Scottish people, and, er, the sheer hypocrisy of undermining the very institutions you created. The first is that this impulse to be not only against independence but against devolution will go down badly with people because it will be perceived to be anti-Scottish (because it is). Secondly, it will be hard for Ian Murray not to become used to exercising this power. Once you’ve bypassed Holyrood why not do it again, and again? It’s power and it’s pork-barrel politics. But there’s a danger here too. The urge to hollow-out and undermine Scotland’s parliament will be hard for Labour to resist, but at the same time Anas Sarwar has his eyes on power at Holyrood in 2026. These moves will not only undermine his chances but also weaken the very parliament he is running for.

Finally, who is going to stand up for Holyrood? The institution has been under relentless attack from left right and centre. It has been smeared as being incapable of drafting good legislation and being packed with low-grade politicians. Much of this has come from attacks on the incumbent Scottish government that have become criticisms of the institution. Somehow lost in all this was the principle of devolution and Scottish democracy.