After the publication of the Brown Commission report, I was surprised to discover that a Scottish comrade was underwhelmed by its proposals for Scotland, I don’t know why that way it should be, as I was underwhelmed by the English proposals for devolution; the whole thing is unambitious and the unimaginative hands of LOTO cover the proposals like a pall. The big problems for Labour in SCotland are its absence from debate on the Constitutional Question and thus the failure to offer more powers on benefits and taxation gives the SNP attack vectors on the proposals. The SNP arguments for independence are strengthened by the Tories decision to veto the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Recognition Act. There’s more on the constitutional question below/overleaf ….
Links
- My blog article on the Brown Commission, where the most powerful reform is that on the House of Lords, not its composition but its powers with a mandate to refuse constitutional reform.
- Reserved and devolved powers by the Scottish Parliament
- A list of articles, with a search word of Devolution from the IFG
- Richard Murphy, writes on the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland settlement, althouhg not so much in that article, but it has references to material in the National.
If thinking about DevoMAX
- The Calman Commission from wikipedia, established by the Scottish Parliament, in 2008, defines the manifesto for DevoMAX.
- The Smith Commission again from wikipedia, this was post indyref and mentions the Vow.
What is the Sewell Convention?
The HoC Library says, on its landing page,
The Sewel Convention applies when the UK Parliament wants to legislate on a matter within the devolved competence of the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales or Northern Ireland Assembly. Under the terms of the Convention, the UK Parliament will “not normally” do so without the relevant devolved institution having passed a legislative consent motion.
Interestingly the HoC Library paper on the Sewel Convention has been replaced as a result of the Govt’s need to ignore the Scottish and Welsh parliament’s withholding of consent.
Were legislative consent to be withheld in relation to one or more of the relevant Brexit framework Bills, the UK Government would not be prevented, legally, from presenting the legislation for Royal Assent. To do so, however, would be a constitutionally unprecedented course of action, the Government having explicitly acknowledged that the convention applies to those Bills.
Scottish Labour
Scottish Labour clearly aren’t. The motion for Scottish Labour’s 2023 Conference, C7. The Constitutional Question. and Starmer’s speech. Frames the Brown Commission in a unionist framing. Is this good enough?