RealNews

People are wondering why Gordon Brown is not criticising Wendy Alexander for continuing to insist in the Scottish Parliament that she wishes a referendum on Scottish independence to be undertaken earlier than later and in complete contradition to Labout party policy. Her stand also seems to undermine the Calman Commission's work.

It's the West Lothian issue again

Gordon Brown's legislative programme is heavily dependent upon the fact that the greater part of the Labour party's Parliamentary majority is made up of Scottish Labour MPs. He has a couple of years to go during which he does not want to suffer any defeats at the hands of rebels. If Gordon Brown ended up alienating the Labour contingent in Scotland he would not survive. This is why Wendy Alexander has been so insistent in her apparent contradictory statements since she knows that in the end Gordon Brown cannot do anything. At the same time she is regaining for herself and the Scottish Labour party a more Scottish brand by not appearing to be following the Westminster Labour collective in a slavish manner. Indeed, according to CybaCity some Labour MSPs feel that if they had appeared to have been more independent of the Westminster end before they might not have lost the last election. So there is some logic in Wendy Alexander's stand. Having said that, Alex Salmond, the leader of the SNP and First Minister, is on firmer ground by insisting that the SNP keep to their planned timetable of a referendum in 2010. So on balance she has not won any argument nor even made a sensible point.

The Calman Commission and other viewpoints

As far as the Calman Commission is concerned it apparently will not address independence anyway but will review issues concerning devolution. Accordingly Wendy Alexander cannot be accused of undermining that Commission which, on the other hand, seems to be starting its work very late in the day, some 8 months after the launch of the National Conversation. It should be mentioned that in spite of the fact that the three political parties organised this Commission so as to exclude the parties which support Scottish independence, Alex Salmond, in March 2008, at the launch of the second phase of the National Conversation involving civic organizations more directly, has in fact welcomed the Calman Commission's formation as a means of identifying possible alternatives (see video of Alex Salmond addressing the civil organizations). Indeed, the SNP leader has always made the position on a referendum very clear when he launched the largely successful National Conversation. He admitted that he favours Scottish independence but that he respected the views of people with opposing positions. After all, the National Conversation was meant to provide a forum for people to review and reflect upon such matters over a reasonable period of time leading up to a possible referendum in 2009 or 2010. Given the importance of the topic with UK implications, this approach remains entirely reasonable.

9th May, 2008