IN response to the Long Letter from Andy Anderson in The National on Wednesday, I believe that devolution has now become a dead end in the route to independence.
Although it has failed in its primary objective of killing support for independence stone dead, it has parried every move in that direction for more than 20 years.
Labour gave us the rigged referendum and locked away the McCrone Report. The Thatcher government ignored all approaches regarding devolution. Labour then claimed to have listened and responded with devolution under the 1998 Scotland Act.
That effectively ended any progress towards independence until the impossible happened and the SNP won an overall majority that resulted in David Cameron agreeing to the 2014 referendum.
Since then, independence has been pursued through the courts.
The first setback was over the Sewel Convention when the Supreme Court ruled that as “not normally” was undefined, the UK Parliament could legislate at will on devolved matters without the consent of the Scottish Parliament.
The outcome of the next major appeal to the Supreme Court was even worse, as the unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court in November 2022 was that the Scottish Parliament does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence and its recognition of the supremacy of the Westminster Parliament limits future court action by the Scottish Government.
If that was not bad enough, only last month the High Court ruled that it was solely up to the Secretary of State to decide if there were reasonable grounds to believe that a bill passed by the Scottish Parliament would have an adverse effect on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters before making an order prohibiting the Presiding Officer from submitting the bill for Royal Assent.
Well you could make sure the laws in question aren’t unlawful for a start.
By passing laws that the Scottish parliament is legally able to pass. Next.
4 comments
IN response to the Long Letter from Andy Anderson in The National on Wednesday, I believe that devolution has now become a dead end in the route to independence.
Although it has failed in its primary objective of killing support for independence stone dead, it has parried every move in that direction for more than 20 years.
Labour gave us the rigged referendum and locked away the McCrone Report. The Thatcher government ignored all approaches regarding devolution. Labour then claimed to have listened and responded with devolution under the 1998 Scotland Act.
That effectively ended any progress towards independence until the impossible happened and the SNP won an overall majority that resulted in David Cameron agreeing to the 2014 referendum.
Since then, independence has been pursued through the courts.
The first setback was over the Sewel Convention when the Supreme Court ruled that as “not normally” was undefined, the UK Parliament could legislate at will on devolved matters without the consent of the Scottish Parliament.
The outcome of the next major appeal to the Supreme Court was even worse, as the unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court in November 2022 was that the Scottish Parliament does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence and its recognition of the supremacy of the Westminster Parliament limits future court action by the Scottish Government.
If that was not bad enough, only last month the High Court ruled that it was solely up to the Secretary of State to decide if there were reasonable grounds to believe that a bill passed by the Scottish Parliament would have an adverse effect on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters before making an order prohibiting the Presiding Officer from submitting the bill for Royal Assent.
Well you could make sure the laws in question aren’t unlawful for a start.
By passing laws that the Scottish parliament is legally able to pass. Next.
S35? How long has he been in high school for!??