Salmond

Dear Alex, Happy St Andrew’s Day! Today you publish your mildly-awaited plans for a referendum on Scottish Independence. Alas, unless the Liberal Democrats can be persuaded to endorse the bill, there’s little prospect of any such referendum actually happening. Such are the traumas of minority government. Of course, you find yourself trapped: if the SNP were stronger, the Unionist parties would refuse the referendum for fear they might lose it, but with the SNP seeming weak, and heading for a tricky Westminster election, they’ve concluded that there’s no point in having the referendum either. Why, they ask, give you the satisfaction? Some of the opposition is certainly personal. This, you

Now that the Conservatives have promised a referendum on any future transfers of power to Brussels and have, in general, become fans of referenda perhaps the party leadership can address the other looming referendum issue: that pertaining to the Act of Union of 1707. Perhaps you can be in favour of a referendum on Lisbon and other EU matters and opposed to a Scottish independence referendum but I confess to finding this combination implausible and unsatisfactory. Furthermore, a referendum is clearly popular: polling suggests that roughly 60% of voters want such a vote and that they want it sooner rather than later. This being so, and in light of recent

So, it seems that dreams of a referendum next year have been dashed. 2010, once the Year of the Referendum, will now be plebiscite-free. No referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and no referendum on the Act of Union either. This my be good news for voters but it’s tough on hacks who’ll need to find something else to write about. But, for a moment, let’s consider some of the implications of this. I’ll leave the Lisbon question to one side for now and reiterate my suspicion that Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are helping, not hindering Alex Salmond, by agreeing to delay nay referendum until after the next

Och, David, dinna fash yersel’. The chances of Alex Salmond playing a tune for anyone to dance to next year are a good deal slimmer than the First Minister himself. His speech was, like Gordon Brown’s in Brighton, a parochial affair, designed to appeal to the lumpen party memebership, not convince anyone who ain’t already a true believer.  It was, then, absurd. But no more absurd than is the rule at this kind of gathering. Then again, it was, in one sense, a Unionist speech, albeit one cloaked in nationalist rhetoric. Public spending in Scotland has essentially doubled in Scotland since devolution (without, it must be said, doing very much

It’s all very well and good getting excited about the American elections. But let’s face it, they were but the appetiser before today’s Westminster by-election in Glenrothes. The Kingdom of Fife is a strange place indeed, a sentiment confirmed by the whispers we now hear that Labour have managed to hold the seat. On the face of it, defending a seat against the 14 point swing needed for you to lose is no great triumph. And yet on this occasion it is, in fact, a rather spectacular victory for Gordon Brown. True, it’s his back yard (he represents the neighbouring constituency) and both he and his wife have campaigned in

From the Adam Smith Institute: Once again, Ireland seems to be the destination of choice for companies driven out of the UK by high taxes. Last week, reports Dominic White, WPP, Glaxo, International Power and AstraZeneca all hinted that they could follow Shire and United Business Media’s plans to switch domicile to Ireland. As the ASI point out, Ireland offers a corporation tax rate of 12.5%, compared to the UK’s 30%. Attractive indeed. But what of Scotland you ask? Well, the SNP is a hybrid party as any analysis of its taxation policy reveals: Alex Salmond looks longingly to Ireland and dreams of a low tax Scotland that will be

Earlier this year I wrote a piece for TNR’s website suggesting that Gordon Brown’s Scottishness might become a problem for him. Well, with Labour riding high in the polls and talk of an autumn election running rife you might think that this was overblown nonsense. Maybe so. But don’t take my word for it, have a gander at the speech Brown gave to the Labour party conference yesterday. For all the talk of change and renewal and driving the country forward, by far and away the most notable element of Brown’s speech was the way he wrapped himself in the Union Flag. He mentioned “Britain”, “British” or “the British people”

Ben Crair has a piece at TNR today headlined, The Iraq War is Responsible for Scottish Independence. Really. Well, up to a point Lord Copper. The “Really” is an unfortunate indication that this pudding may be a little over-egged. Few people would deny that discontent with the war played a part in the SNP’s victory in this year’s elections. But other factors were at least as, and probably more, important. Among them: 1. Alex Salmond’s return from his Westminster exile. Salmond brings a heavyweight presence that trumped anything the SNP could put up in his absence; it trumped Jack McConnell’s pretensions to statesman status too. You wouldn’t feel embarrassed being

Interesting, though unsurprising, interview in today’s Scotsman. Des Browne, the Secretary of State for Scotland, tells the paper’s political editor Hamish Macdonell that there’s no need for any talk about new powers for Holyrood. Move along now, please. Nothing to see here. Mr Browne delivers the standard Labour ministerial line: we’ll have a consultation and “listen” to all views but our mind is made up. So what’s the point? Score this as another victory for Alex Salmond. Wendy Alexander, the likely new leader of the Scottish Labour party, is understood to want a review of the devolution “settlement”. It would be a surprise if she were not. She is a