The legacy of devolution – 25 years on

Winnie Ewing, SNP royalty – Madame Écosse to those who had served alongside her in the European Parliament – opened proceedings with a song in her voice and a twinkle in her eye. ‘The Scottish Parliament,’ said the oldest of its new members, ‘adjourned on 25th day of March in the year 1707, is hereby reconvened’.

Applause rang out across the debating chamber. The sense of optimism, and possibility, was palpable on the morning of Wednesday, May 12, 1999. On the 25th anniversary of devolution, the mood is very different. 

Today, Scotland’s politics is degraded and divided. A parliament that was supposed to react nimbly to the priorities of voters north of the border has, instead, become home to tribes of intransigent ideologues. The constitutional question has come to dominate debate at the expense of progress across a range of policy areas and the idea that Holyrood might mean a more collaborative kind of politics has been comprehensively destroyed.