For all his faults, Brown effectively ruled out a referendum on Scottish independence at PMQs today.
Only Westminster can legislate for such a referendum, and Brown has adopted the far more sensible approach that Scottish separatism should be ignored until it goes away. The Tories were much more popular in Scotland when that was their line, and Brown clearly wants to fill the gap that they have left.
So, what says David Cameron?
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'greater power can only be granted to Scotland by the UK Parliament and here there is potential for conflict. To take the extreme example, constitutional matters are reserved but it is hard to see how the Scottish Parliament could be prevented from holding a referendum on independence should it be determined to do so. If the Scottish people expressed a desire for independence the stage would be set for a direct clash between what is the English doctrine of sovereignty and the Scottish doctrine of the sovereignty of the people.'
ReplyDeleteSOURCE: 'The Operation of Multi-Layer Democracy', Scottish Affairs Committee Second Report of Session 1997-1998, HC 460-I, 2 December 1998, para 27.
'The principle of the unlimited sovereignty of Parliament is a distinctively English principle which has no counterpart in Scottish constitutional law.'
SOURCE: from a legal finding by Lord Cooper in the Scottish Court of Session, McCormick v Lord Advocate 1954 (1953 SC 396).
In other words the devolved Scottish Parliament may have been established through the UK Parliament where the unlimited sovereignty of Parliament applies but it is located in Scotland where the sovereignty of the Scottish people applies. When the Treaty of Union of 1707 was agreed by the then Scottish Parliament there were riots throughout Scotland by the general population as they had no say.
I can't see what any of this has to do with the point.
ReplyDeleteThe Scottish people (whoever they might be - everybody on the electoral register in Scotland? Which one? The local one with all EU nationals resident in Scotland on it?) could not definitively express a desire for independence except at a referendum. And the Scotland Act deliberately makes it impossible for the Scottish Parliament to hold one; anyone who objects to that should have voted No to devolution.
Of course this referendum could not be held if the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom were determined that it should not be. And anyone who could ever realistically become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will always, by definition, be so determined. So it is never going to happen.
Quite what is then the point of the SNP is altogether another question. There really would not appear to be one.