Scotland and England Together on Equal Terms

Writing in this month's Parliamentary Brief, Dr Simon Lee questions whether the constitutional settlement is 'fair and just'.

When Donald Dewar, the then Secretary of State for Scotland introduced the Blair government’s white paper, Scotland’s Parliament, he argued that the consequence of ‘Entrusting Scotland with control over her own domestic affairs’ would be ‘a fair and just settlement for Scotland’. Devolution would not only ‘strengthen democratic control and make government more accountable to the people of Scotland’, but would also ‘better allow the people of Scotland to benefit from, and contribute to, the unity of the United Kingdom’.

It is difficult to identify a legitimate political reason why England and its people should not be entrusted to exercise democratic control over her own domestic affairs, and thereby receive ‘a fair and just settlement’. If such a settlement is denied, then the political advantage for England of maintaining the British Union may come further into question.

As incredible as it may seem, Tony Blair believed that devolution to Scotland put England and Scotland on equal terms, as Donald Dewar's signed copy of the Scotland Act shows.

But then, Tony Blair always was a dick. The 'constitutional settlement' can only be fair and just when it is the settled will of the people, so until we ask England how England wants to be governed there can be no 'settlement', fair and just or otherwise.

Simon Lee: Cameron Scotched