Post by thomas on Jan 2, 2023 14:38:47 GMT
Following on from comments on another thread, i think this deserves a thread of its own on the scottish section of this forum.
Devolution and the Labour Myth
So how did this vital intermediate step of devolution come to be realised, in the teeth of the determination of the entire London establishment right across the political spectrum to kill it at any and all cost? Here is one little-known aspect of the answer.
Establishment hostility reached its sordid peak with the orgy of corruption that was the 1979 referendum. It is not the subject of this article and there is no need to repeat facts that we all know. Thatcher’s arrogant coup d’état in the face of a perfectly adequate majority vote similar to that of the 1975 EEC referendum left Scotland stunned, bewildered and disorientated. It took a long time for the Scots to collect their wits and for the reaction to set in.
One early step in that reaction was the formation of the Scotland-UN Committee in the summer of 1979. Seething with anger, a group of SNP members and supporters, led by John McGill (FSA Scot.) of Kilmarnock, set out to take the whole issue of home rule to the United Nations and the other international authorities. I was invited to participate on the strength of my own vitriolic condemnation of the referendum scandal in the pages of The Scotsman and elsewhere.
The only member of the Labour Party who actively cooperated in the project was Dennis Canavan, while others like John Smith and Donald Dewar dropped the whole issue of devolution after Thatcher’s “repeal” of the Scotland Act, like something that was only “for discussion between consenting adults”, as the saying went at the time.
Establishment hostility reached its sordid peak with the orgy of corruption that was the 1979 referendum. It is not the subject of this article and there is no need to repeat facts that we all know. Thatcher’s arrogant coup d’état in the face of a perfectly adequate majority vote similar to that of the 1975 EEC referendum left Scotland stunned, bewildered and disorientated. It took a long time for the Scots to collect their wits and for the reaction to set in.
One early step in that reaction was the formation of the Scotland-UN Committee in the summer of 1979. Seething with anger, a group of SNP members and supporters, led by John McGill (FSA Scot.) of Kilmarnock, set out to take the whole issue of home rule to the United Nations and the other international authorities. I was invited to participate on the strength of my own vitriolic condemnation of the referendum scandal in the pages of The Scotsman and elsewhere.
The only member of the Labour Party who actively cooperated in the project was Dennis Canavan, while others like John Smith and Donald Dewar dropped the whole issue of devolution after Thatcher’s “repeal” of the Scotland Act, like something that was only “for discussion between consenting adults”, as the saying went at the time.
From 1994 on the Committee of Ministers started monitoring the democratic systems of all the European states, members and aspiring members of the CoE alike. It was obvious from the start that it could not make exceptions, that existing Western member states had to be judged by the same standards that were being applied to the former Communist countries.
When the monitoring committee got round to the UK in June 1996 its report was politely damning. It dealt not only with Scotland, but also with Wales, and it undid the Thatcherite changes to the administration of London. Later additions dealt with other constitutional deficiencies like the method of appointing Scottish judges.
The most humiliating of all was that it bracketed the UK in a group with Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine as one of six states having “major problems in meeting standards of democracy.”
When the monitoring committee got round to the UK in June 1996 its report was politely damning. It dealt not only with Scotland, but also with Wales, and it undid the Thatcherite changes to the administration of London. Later additions dealt with other constitutional deficiencies like the method of appointing Scottish judges.
The most humiliating of all was that it bracketed the UK in a group with Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine as one of six states having “major problems in meeting standards of democracy.”
Devolution thereby ceased to be a political party issue and became a foreign policy commitment that had to be implemented, no matter what government was in office in London.
John Major and the Conservatives were no doubt very thankful that this hot potato bounced onto the lap of Tony Blair and the Labour leadership, whose efforts to kill the Strasbourg action, even while out of office, had resulted in a monumental diplomatic disaster that never achieved publicity.
The Council of Europe issued a statement making it pointedly clear that failure to abide by the international norms of pluralist democracy “would be incompatible with membership of the Council.”
The Tories had stubbornly dragged their feet over the UK’s accession to the Charter of Local Self-Government, but then, in March 1997, a few weeks before the election that brought Blair’s Labour government to power, the Council of Europe pointedly spelled out the sanctions that would be applied, in a series of escalating steps, to any European state that did not “fully and swiftly comply with the basic democratic principles that are at the heart of the European Ideal.”
In plain language, get Scotland, Wales, etc. sorted out or be expelled from the Council of Europe in the most humiliatingly public manner – a step that would have had devastating international consequences, especially just a few weeks before the UK presidency of the European Union.
Total capitulation followed. With the entire international diplomatic corps breathing down its neck, the new UK government signed the Charter on 3 June 1997 (the last one in Europe to do so) and brought in bills for devolution to Scotland and Wales – to written approval by Strasbourg, but described by Blair as “a damnable nuisance.”
The fulfilment of this foreign policy obligation was therefore a diplomatic and not a political decision.
John Major and the Conservatives were no doubt very thankful that this hot potato bounced onto the lap of Tony Blair and the Labour leadership, whose efforts to kill the Strasbourg action, even while out of office, had resulted in a monumental diplomatic disaster that never achieved publicity.
The Council of Europe issued a statement making it pointedly clear that failure to abide by the international norms of pluralist democracy “would be incompatible with membership of the Council.”
The Tories had stubbornly dragged their feet over the UK’s accession to the Charter of Local Self-Government, but then, in March 1997, a few weeks before the election that brought Blair’s Labour government to power, the Council of Europe pointedly spelled out the sanctions that would be applied, in a series of escalating steps, to any European state that did not “fully and swiftly comply with the basic democratic principles that are at the heart of the European Ideal.”
In plain language, get Scotland, Wales, etc. sorted out or be expelled from the Council of Europe in the most humiliatingly public manner – a step that would have had devastating international consequences, especially just a few weeks before the UK presidency of the European Union.
Total capitulation followed. With the entire international diplomatic corps breathing down its neck, the new UK government signed the Charter on 3 June 1997 (the last one in Europe to do so) and brought in bills for devolution to Scotland and Wales – to written approval by Strasbourg, but described by Blair as “a damnable nuisance.”
The fulfilment of this foreign policy obligation was therefore a diplomatic and not a political decision.
Labour’s nose having been well and truly rubbed in the unwelcome devolution project, it was left to Donald Dewar to implement it with the absolute minimum of powers that Labour could get off with, while keeping the Scottish legislature firmly tied to London, and generally whittling devolution down as far as possible. The Holyrood building project was probably intended to be a means of strengthening Labour’s hold on the devolved system as well as glorifying Dewar personally.
Tony Blair and the remaining Labour leadership ostentatiously boycotted the opening of the Scottish Parliament and later the Holyrood building in order to show what they thought of the whole business – an attitude later confirmed in Blair’s memoirs.
full article here , and its an interesting read for those who have heard the contrary blairite version of events....