Straw in the Wind

So what's this? Jack Straw thinks we should now legislate so the Union that is the UK can never be dissolved (read it here at the Times). Forgive my foaming at the mouth. Has he any understanding of the act of Union that began this? Scotland's people are sovereign in this whereas the people of England are not. Parliament took sovereignty from the monarch at the time of union but Scotland, as set out in the Declaration of Arbroath, made the people sovereign.

The implications of the Act of Union and the Declaration, as I read them, are that the UK Parliament can't just pass a law to make it impossible (illegal) to pursue independence ever again, without settling the question of sovereignty. Otherwise, any attempt to rule as he suggests, would be a breach of that act and in itself tear up the union.

Christine Graham MSP made a statement in the Scottish Parliament on the subject in March 2014*.

* This is an audio-only clip and it repeats after 6m 30s.

But it's the mindset. Don't you think? Jack Straw thinks of Scotland as a region. In his eyes, the Act of Union eradicated the Scottish nation. It didn't, it merely transferred decision-making to a new parliament in London.

David Cameron, very likely, takes a similar view. His answer to the West Lothian question points that way. It's rather simplistic to think a separation of voting rights, so Scottish (and Welsh or Irish) MPs are barred from voting on purely English matters. This is also regional thinking. It ignores the interplay between parts of the UK (so highly regarded by NO in the Referendum debate) as if purely English decisions would have no implications for the rest of the UK. It also creates a two-tier political process where our representatives operate with differently weighted votes.

You can't argue that the UK is better together as a union and then go on to say we exclude parts of it from voting in the place where mutual interests reside. This is a recipe for discontent if not disaster. Fully devolved regional and city assemblies might achieve some form of parity but, if the UK accepts MPs from all of them, their mandate is to act in accordance with the views of the peoples and regions they represent in the interests of the union. With no exceptions.

The Westminster reluctance here is clear. Full devolution (as in Scotland's elusive Devo-Max) would involve not just tax varying or tax raising powers, but control of ALL tax revenues. Independence in all but name. This exposes the establishment's propensity to fiddle the figures. For Scotland, oil revenues are usually book-kept out of the equation, attributed to the Treasury as a UK asset. Other tax revenues are fudged and finally top-sliced to pay for Westminster expenses, the Lords, infrastructure projects of little benefit beyond establishment heartlands.

With clarity here, all of us would know where we stood but Westminster would have to own up to essentially having its fingers in the till. It would be like your accountant, having long trumpeted his competence and trustworthiness, was exposed as the one who used your funds to finance speculation on the money markets, in military adventures, favouring one client over another and never you.

So, Straw. Introduced the Human Rights Act; also proposed the end to trial by jury of terror suspects; Home Secretary at the time of 9/11, he presided over the Iraq war. He also strengthened extradition rules in favour of the USA, and was accused of making them too one-sided. He was also accused later of complicity in the USA's practices of extraordinary rendition and torture.

Don't get bogged down in accusation and defence here, that's for other forums. Just reflect on the mindset. Straw's is typical, suggesting clandestine deals between hawkish figures, spooky shenanigans on the world stage, and the smoke-filled rooms of Old Labour. Political fog, smoke and mirrors. Transparency. Just a word.

That's the signature of a kind of politics we don't want any more. And it's reasserting itself. Jack Straw is an indicator of the prevailing mood. He's wrong about Scotland. They all are. Being wrong hasn't stopped them before.