Steel warns against referendum confusion bitterness

David Steel should know what he's talking about when it comes to constitutional politics. As a co-chair of the Scottish Constitutional Convention and subsequently as the chair of the Steel Commission that examined post devolution policy options for the Liberal Democrats, his experience and knowledge is unparallelled.

We should, therefore listen to what he has to say.

He has stepped into the debate, instigated by Willie Rennie, on the subject of a two question referendum, saying that it could lead to an unclear outcome. He, of course, has had direct experience of politicians with an agenda seeking to manipulate the results of a referendum. In 1979, a majority of Scots voted in favour of a Scottish Assembly, but a requirement that 40% of the electorate should vote in favour had been inserted by anti-devolution Labour dinosaurs. Unfortunately, this threshold was not reached despite a turnout of nearly 64%. Such a blatant attempt tosall the wishes of the Scottish people has cast a long shadow.

Lord Steel said:

I made my maiden speech in the House of Lords on the 1997 referendum to establish the Scottish Parliament which followed seven years as co-chair of the Constitutional Convention. In the House of Lords I also reflected on the situation at the 1979 referendum.
 
“Back in 1979, changes were made to the referendum to put a qualifying quota for support for devolution. That meant that, even though a majority of Scots voted for devolution, it didn’t happen in 1979. In fact, people on the electoral register who had died or were simply on holiday were counted as if they had voted ‘No’.
 
“As I told the House of Lords, ‘that left a sense of real bitterness and frustration which one does not want to see repeated in any form on a future occasion’. So, it is astonishing to see, more than thirty years later, proposals that could make the result of the next referendum unclear.
 
“The ‘bitterness’ and ‘frustration’ will been seen again in Scotland if a landslide of voters choose further devolution but they get defeated by a less popular option of independence.
 
“Willie Rennie is right to draw our attention to the potential problem. Professor John Curtice has said it is an ‘obvious problem’.
 
"The analogy with the 1997 referendum is false. The second vote back then was a simple add-on to the first. As Willie Rennie has already pointed out, Independence and Devolution Max are two, separate, stand-alone propositions. One is within the United Kingdom and one outwith. They are mutually exclusive.
 
“The Scottish Government now have to set out far more clearly the answers to the challenges people are posing them.
 
“The last thing we want is for the Scottish Government to make the same mistakes that were made in 1979 and have a referendum where there is no clarity or justice to the result.
 
“I make no secret of the fact that I have always favoured the maximum common sense amount of devolution possible to the Scottish Parliament without unnecessary expense or the break-up of valued UK institutions such as our social security system. 
 
“To achieve this we need calm constructive dialogue between Ministers in Edinburgh and London.  Instead at the moment we have to tolerate megaphone diplomacy and extravagant public posturing which does nothing except spread confusion in the public mind”.

I don't always agree with David Steel but his track record of credibility on Scotland's governance is indisputable.

The SNP need to let go of the massive chip on their shoulder and work with others to ensure that the referendum result is unambiguous. Their "my way or the high way" approach could poentially be extremely damaging.

Scotland deserves a quality debate on its future. Otherwise we may find ourselves in a place where we really don't want to be.

David Steel slams Salmond on Supreme Court as he quits government advisory role

Former Liberal leader and Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament David Steel has sensationally quit his role as an independent advisor to the Scottish Government on the Ministerial Code, citing Alex Salmond's and Kenny MacAskill's "appalling" criticisms of the Supreme Court.

For those of you south of the border who may not have heard about this, in recent months, the Supreme Court has ruled that two convictions should be quashed on human rights grounds. Alex Salmond, Scottish First Minister and Kenny MacAskill the Justice Secretary have shouted long and hard about how the Supreme Court shouldn't be interfering in the Scottish legal system. Personally, if I were in power, I'd have felt mortified at being found not to have complied with what the European Convention of Human Rights would expect. And if you look at the substance of the cases, I am not in the least troubled by the judgements. In the first, Peter Cadder complained that as a teenager he had no access to legal advice during a police interview. In the second, Nat Fraser complained that his defence team had not been given a vital piece of evidence in his murder trial.

But no, Salmond and MacAskill did what they always do - blame London. Instead, they want Scots appealing under ECHR grounds to go to Strasbourg. The thing is, when the Supreme Court discusses ECHR cases, they use ECHR jurisprudence. For a month or so, SNP ministers launched a series of astonishing attacks on senior judges and solicitors, most famously Alex Salmond's in Holyrood magazine,  which seemed at best ill advised and intemperate.

It's these attacks which prompted David Steel's resignation. He said:

“I resigned from this position several weeks ago but agreed with the First Minister not to say anything until he had made new appointments.

“The reason I relinquished the role was that I was appalled by the language being used by Alex Salmond, Kenny MacAskill and an authorised spokesman towards the judiciary on the Supreme Court and the Secretary of State.

“I told Alex that I hoped this was not the way they were going to continue now that they had an overall majority, because if so I expected a growing number of complaints against ministers.

“Whether my letter had any effect I do not know – he sent me a polite and effusive letter of thanks for my services, but I am glad to observe that there has been no repetition of attacking the messengers instead of arguing the message.

“I wish Peter Fraser and Elish Angiolini – both of whom I hold in high regard – well in taking on this task, with the hope that their services will not be too often required.”

It's so typical of SNP ministers to fly into a rage with London on just about any issue. It's usually inappropriate, but this took not only the biscuit but the entire Scottish Government stocks of confectionery. They would be better advised to sort out the flaws in our legal system, and, while they're at it, the appalling conditions at Scotland's only women's prison, Cornton Vale, 

Lib Dem Leader Willie Rennie said, in response to David Steel's resignation:

“I am not surprised that David Steel feels this way. He knows it is important to keep the judiciary separate from politics.  SNP ministers put that at risk.

“There’s now a serious situation in Scotland. Alex Salmond has his overall majority. He has the plum parliamentary committee positions. And now he has lost two experienced members of his scrutiny panel. He has every opportunity to bulldozer now.

“It will take strong, liberal voices to stand up to him.”

It's interesting that Salmond has now chosen more legal, than political people to replace David Steel and George Reid, who also stepped down from this role.  Peter Fraser and Eilish Angiolini will now deal with complaints about ministers. I wonder if you actually need people with an insight into the political process as well in that kind of job.

David Steel is not what you would call the biggest radical in the party - I mean, he's spoken out against electing the Lords, for goodness sake. If he thinks the First Minister and his cabinet are taking a dangerous approach to Government, then they really must be. Those of us who embrace liberal values will have to be very vigilant in the years to come.

Update: A wise friend of mine commented on the blog's Facebook wall: Nice piece Caron, but I think you could be missing David's radicalism. Look again at his record, you could start with the Abortion Act or his involvement in the anti apartheid movement or being a founder signatory to the Claim of Right. He's no stranger to human rights and wrongs. Let's not wipe out his record of radical acts with one expressed opinion.

And of course she is right. I have been a bit disgruntled in recent years with his hostility towards breastfeeding at Holyrood and his recent pronouncements on Lords reform, but we really shouldn't dismiss all he's done in terms of working against apartheid, and particularly the Abortion Act.  These things were groundbreaking and deserve a mention.

Gladstone Anniversary in the Snow

Yesterday, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Liberal statesman William Ewart Gladstone a group of hardy Liberal Democrats gathered in the snow and ice to remember him. I was not among them. To my eternal shame, a septuagenarian from deep in the borders managed it, but I didn't manage to get past the snow and ice on my street. Mind you, my neighbour fell over the other day and broke her wrist, which did nothing to make me like the wintry conditions any better. She can't get an appointment at the fracture clinic until next Thursday, either, because so many other people have similar injuries.

The photo was kindly sent to me by John Barrett MP and shows, among others, Lord Steel and Robert Brown MSP.

After the terrible news yesterday of Akmal Shaikh's execution, Kelvin makes a salient point linking Gladstone to events in China.

In looking for Gladstonian wisdome to share with you, I found some quotes from him which are particularly close to my heart:

"Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea! How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea."


“If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you; if you are excited, it will calm you.”

How very appropriate that he shares his birthday with my lovely granny who just loved her tea, a trait I have inherited.

I hope those who gathered yesterday went and had a nice, warming cuppa after the ceremony.

A lot of what Gladstone was saying 150 years ago is relevant today. Take a look at this:

“Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.”, As true now as it was then.

“Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race” is particularly relevant as we remember, 30 years on, how the last Tory Government encouraged self advancement and discouraged community, with Thatcher herself eschewing the notion of society. Surely we're not going to make that mistake again......

As Labour and Tory continue with their ridiculous, phony class war which comes as a welcome distraction from having to defend policy or record, Gladstone's view is alive and well in today's Liberal Democrats, standing up for ordinary people:

“All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes.”

And finally, can you get more idealistic and optimistic than this?

"We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace."

Gladstone lived through an age of constant political reform, where the franchise was being slowly extended and stood for cleaning up politics, improving conditions for workers, making sure all children were able to go to school. In the 20th century, the welfare state and the NHS were founded on rock solid liberal principles. Today's Liberal Democrats recognise that there is much still to be done. Education, reducing poverty and political reform which brings Government closer and more accountable to the people are at the heart of what are, have been and always will be about.

Nadine Dorries thinks Trident isn't a weapon of mass destruction

Yes, you did read that right. Tory MP Nadine Dorries actually said on Question Time (and I replayed it several times to make sure, because I thought my dodgy ears couldn't possibly be right) that Trident, which her Party has vowed to replace in the unfortunate event of them ever returning to office, is not a weapon of mass destruction.

It's a pity she couldn't have looked up her leader's plans for a more important item of defence spending - the aircraft carriers which are due to be built at Rosyth dockyard if this Government ever stops delaying the project. She was asked the direct question and she said she didn't know. I think we should be told the Tory plans for a project which is so vital for the Fife economy, where unemployment is up a jaw dropping 70% on last year. You would think that when she was appearing on a tv programme being filmed a hop, skip and a jump from Rosyth that somebody in the Tory party would have had the sense to brief her. Of course, there's always the possibility that they don't want to make their plans public.... Why could that be?

Anyway, I think the clear star performer last night was Nicola Sturgeon. She is usually very good in these combative settings and she did shine last night, despite not having particularly great opposition.

What on earth are the Labour Party going to do about Iain Gray, though? He's a nice enough man with his heart in the right place, but he was clearly otherwise engaged when charisma was being handed out. His delivery is wooden and he can barely string an argument together.

Nadine was, well, Nadine and totally out of her comfort zone. The bizarre SNP/Tory love in lives on as she praised a lot of what was happening in Scotland and had to be reminded by David Steel that the Tories had completely and obstinately opposed devolution in any form.

I wasn't too enamoured with David Steel saying he saw the point of the people in the audience who were calling for everyone's DNA to be taken at birth and put on a database and not advancing any of the arguments why this would be a really bad idea.

Nadine's Trident comment has to be the quote of the week, though - the audience gasped with sheer incredulity.

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