Labour takes the devolution ball away

To paraphrase the famous phrase attributed to the American author Mark Twain, there’s lies, damn lies, and Westminster promises to Scotland. The respect agenda and the promise of greater devolution made to Scotland by the Better Together parties during 2014’s Scottish independence referendum were comprehensively trashed by the Conservatives in the following years, and now the über-unionists of the Labour party are hell bent on finishing the job. Buoyed up by its defeat of the SNP at the recent Westminster general election, Labour will claim that its devolution busting plans have democratic credibility even though they were not mentioned much prior to the election when Anas Sarwar was talking in vague and unspecified terms about how he wanted more powers for the Scottish Parliament. He lied, who’d have thought it?

Not that Anas Sarwar is going to be held to account by the Scottish media for his many and frequent misleading statements. Sarwar is the current holder of the title Saviour of the Union and as such will be fiercely protected by BBC Scotland and the anti-independence media. Sarwar received a free ride for his claims that the Labour party in Scotland opposes the abhorrent two child cap on benefits and a free pass on the Labour government’s decision to abolish the universal winter fuel payment for pensioners.

Sarwar will continue to enjoy a free pass as his Westminster bosses get on with the job begun by the Tories of by passing and side lining the devolution settlement.

On Sunday the Labour Scottish fanzine the Sunday Mail reported that the Labour government is planning new legislation to expand the powers of the Scotland Office by turning it into a “spending department”. The plan will reportedly be voted on by MPs around the time of the Budget on October 30. The plan would allow Chancellor Rachel Reeves to allocate a reported £150 million to Scotland Secretary Ian Murray to pass to local authorities for measures to combat poverty.

This is clearly an undemocratic and brazenly ideological move by the Labour party that will harm the democratically elected government in Scotland and the delivery of public services. In theie explanation for the move, the ‘Labour source’ quoted by the Sunday Mail was dripping with contempt for the Scottish Government.

“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.

“Of course it will be seen by some as a challenge to devolution and the UK Government rolling its tanks onto Holyrood’s lawn.”

What this boils down to is – we don’t like the Scottish Government, so we are unilaterally taking power for ourselves. “Getting bogged down in bureaucracy” is code for the democratically elected government of Scotland objecting. It’s not for the Labour party in Westminster to deliver a verdict on the competence of the Scottish Government, it’s for the Scottish people in a Holyrood election. And yes it will be seen as Westminster rolling its tanks onto Holyrood’s lawn, because that is exactly what it is. The person giving the quote knows it is too, they just don’t care.

After years of Labour politicians and Unionist journalists telling us that devolution would be strengthened under a Labour government – Labour is going to bypass it altogether. Labour is destroying the very democratic institutions it created. Scotland refused to play ball by giving the Labour party power in perpetuity, so Labour is taking the ball away.

The obvious question here is that if an extra £150 million in funding is available then why can it not be passed directly to the Scottish Government? That sum of money would have allowed the Scottish Government to retain universal entitlement for pensioners to the Scottish winter fuel payment instead of being forced to follow Labour in England and Wales and make the payment available only to those pensioners who receive means tested benefits.

The answer of course lies in the fact that for the Westminster parties the devolution settlement was only ever a means to an end. For Labour the devolution settlement had two main goals, the first of these was in the words of former Labour Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland Robertson to: “Kill [Scottish] nationalism stone dead.” The second was to provide the Labour party with as bastion of power in Scotland while it was out of power in Westminster.

Devolution has failed to deliver these two key aims for the Labour party. A desire for Scottish independence is alive and kicking irrespective of the electoral fortunes of the SNP, with half or more of the Scottish population wanting to see Scotland an independent nation. It is no longer earth shattering news when an opinion poll is published showing majority support for independence.

Opposition to independence enjoys majority support only amongst members of the older generations and even a considerable number of older people desire independence. Worryingly for opponents of independence, support for independence reaches overwhelming levels of support amongst younger generations, amongst whom independence is their settled will. The so-called Union is living on borrowed time.

Labour has been out of power in Holyrood for over a decade and a half, for most of the quarter century history of the Scottish Parliament.

Labour’s goal now is to neuter the Scottish Parliament as much as possible. Labour has no intention of tackling the underlying cause of rising support for independence, which is widespread dissatisfaction with the democratic sclerosis of Westminster and the inability of any British Government to introduce meaningful reform. So instead Labour, like the Tories before it, intends to neutralise the ability of the Scottish Parliament to act on rising pro-independence sentiment in Scotland. It can do this by by passing Holyrood and restoring direct rule by the back door.

Labour is immensely assisted in this by the current political weakness of the SNP. Starmer will be able to claim that a majority of Scotland’s MPs support his plans as supposed proof of their democratic legitimacy. If the SNP loses control of Holyrood in 2026 then Labour’s neutralisation of the Scottish Parliament will move into overdrive as Anas Sarwar hands over power from the Scottish Parliament to local authorities, many of which are run by Labour together with their helpers in the Tory party. Labour will bill this as ‘real devolution’ but it is no such thing, it is really about strengthening bodies which Labour can reliably control while weakening the ability of the Scottish Government to stand up to an all-powerful Westminster.

While we are on the topic of our new governor general, the SNP’s Angus Robertson had a meeting with an Israeli ambassador during which he reportedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza and it has been front page news for days. Scotland Secretary Ian Murray announced a trade deal with Israel and there was absolute silence. Additionally, prior to the general election, Labour figures including Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie met with Nick Chaffey, the CEO for the UK, Europe and Middle East operations of Northrop Grumman, a world-leading manufacturer of machines that kill people, and a major exporter of those machines to Israel, including many components for both the F-35 and F-16 warplanes.

This is what the Labour party stands for. It stands for attacks on the devolution settlement, penalising the poor and pensioners, and exporting arms to Israel. Scotland loses £160 million because Labour have ditched the universal winter fuel payment, but at the same time Labour will likely vote to bypass the Scottish government and give Ian Murray £150 million to spend in Scotland so they get brownie points. This is what you voted for Scotland. Subterfuge, gaslighting and manipulation.

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