Alex Massie Alex Massie

Brown and the Union

Ben Brogan accepts Labour’s challenge to judge Gordon on substance not style and, unsurprisingly, finds him wanting. But in his critique he also includes this:

On the substance of the constitution, he gerrymandered new bodies that turned on Labour and undermined the union.

What on earth is he talking about? What are these bodies, how have they been gerrymandered and how have they undermined the Union? I really have no idea.

I assume Brogan is talking about the Scotttish parliament but, as an ex-Glasgow Herald man, he must know a) that Brown did not drive devolution, b) that “gerrymandered” is a very strange word to use about an electoral system that, whatever its flaws, required Labour to give-up its built-in advantage and c) that the case for devolution “undermining” the Union remains not proven at worst.

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