26 January 2011
It is all over. Well it is now. This famous or for the Tartan Army, infamous, commentary accompanied the Geoff Hurst goal in the 1966 World Cup Final. The year I was born and still the last time England won an international football championship.
Scotland’s constitutional future, far from beginning is over too. The great majority of Scots have made up their mind. There is not much room for grey or shades of grey on Scotland in or out. You are either with it or not. So the next two and a half years are going to certainly be lengthy, insular in tone and at times partisan. And will this campaign that Mr Salmond has launched us into change many minds? I rather doubt it. Scotland will on balance wish to remain part of the UK. Where I absolutely agree with Mr Salmond is that the great majority of Scots do want more powers for the Holyrood Parliament.
Yesterday the doyen of nationalism Margo Macdonald made an impassioned plea to Mr Salmond to front up the case for independence and to drop a further confusing question in the 2014 referendum. She from the opposite side of the constitutional fence was agreeing with Scottish Secretary Mike Moore on the need for a legal, fair and decisive result. Margo is an independent MSP. But there is no doubt as to what she will campaign for. So let us hope he listens.
This week, the Nationalists did back off a second question. The 2010 Scottish Government consultation - yes there have been a few – detailed a multi-option referendum. Not now. There was no such certainty or clarity. The Nationalists will consider options. A multi option referendum can of course be put to the people – to choose the location of a new swimming pool but not to settle the future of Scotland. Salmond prays in aid the Gould Report which advocated separating local and national elections to avoid voter confusion. Surely if that argument works for elections it applies to deciding the future of Scotland? Mr Salmond, not yesterday or any day, answers what would happen in a multi-option referendum where independence got less votes than more powers within the UK.
Across parties, many walks of Scottish life and Scotland the great majority want a Home Rule Parliament but within the UK. The principle that we should tax and spend and be responsible for both is right. Right too at a local level although sadly after 5 years of Nationalist Government, local councils now have no control on what comes in, merely on how to spend £11 billion of Scottish taxpayers money. So that must change too.
How then do the progressive people across Scotland who want to achieve a Home Rule Parliament get that done? A real and robust blueprint must be built so that an overwhelmingly positive case can be made that would be the settled will of the Scottish people. A Home Rule Parliament within the UK is what most across our country want to achieve. Oh, and a successful national football team.