Independence is Straightforward, Devolution is a Muddle

I was interested to read in the Herald earlier today that Scotland Office minister David Cairns has set his face against the devolution of broadcasting powers, believing that this would be luddite.

Afraid I can't find a link folks, but there is a bit at the end of the following Scotsman piece about this (scroll past the bit about Nature programmes to find it):

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Nature-programmes---an.3695652.jp

In itself this is interesting enough. It is a pretty clear statement from a UK government minister that he doesn't believe Scots are competent enough to manage their own media adequately, despite numerous countries across the globe similar in size or smaller than Scotland proving themselves quite capable of doing so. His use of the term "luddite" is thrown in to try and indicate how backwards anyone who believes otherwise is.

All perfect nonsense of course. We could quite capably manage our own media, and in doing so we might even get our fair share of TV license revenues raised in Scotland.

However, this was interesting in a wider way too.

Much is being made by the three unionist parties of their tripartite approach to establishing a commission to determine what extra powers should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. I would have thought that control over broadcasting would have been an obvious option. After all it hardly seems likely that the UK government are about to suggest devolution of foreign affairs or defence to Holyrood, and I would have thought broadcasting would be more likely than any major devolution over taxation and benefits. After all, Gordon Brown has already ruled out devolution over corporation tax. So, you might, like I, have considered that something like broadcasting might be on the cards.

Not so it seems after this latest broadside from David Cairns.

What then might be offered by this Commission? What is up for discussion?

The first problem they face is that the three different parties involved will all have different ideas about what should be devolved. This will involve to-ing and fro-ing and horsetrading between them I would imagine. But it is clear that there is no concise unified approach to further devolution.

The second problem that any devolutionist faces in wrenching greater powers from the British state is that control over these matters is the preserve of the Westminster Parliament. It will take legislation from London to devolve further powers. Given Mr Cairns' outburst regarding broadcasting there are no guarantees that such legislation will be willingly brought forward to comply with an initiative from the unionist parties in the Scottish Parliament.

That is why I believe it is actually a far easier process to move to independence than it is to secure further devolution. If a devolved government with the backing of the Scottish people can move us towards independence then it is much smoother than a drip by drip process of accumulating additional powers.

Sure, it is right that strictly speaking the Scotland Act reserves such matters to Westminster in the same way it does the devolution of powers in a piecemeal fashion. However, the realpolitik of a scenario in which a devolved government with the full backing of the Scottish people has moved the country to independence transcends any such reservation of powers.

That is not so much the case with the devolution of this power here and that power there. In such a scenario you are still very much beholden upon Westminster granting such powers.

This is why I believe the process of moving to independence, far from being the huge difficulty unionists make it out to be, is actually far simpler than the acquisition of extra powers to the Scottish Parliament in the context of devolution.

This is to say nothing of the fact it is more logical.

I can never understand why someone would say that they believe we should control this or that thing here in Scotland but not have control over foreign affairs and defence. If we can adequately take care of any extra powers the unionist Commission proposes, then we are more than capable enough of adequately administering an independent state.

But logic has never been high on the unionist agenda. Even though they won't admit it, this Commission is born out of fear of the SNP forming the government in Scotland and moving us towards independence.

The unionists will just have to get used to that though!