As preparations and arrangements are made for the meeting between David Cameron and Alex Salmond about the referendum on the future of Scotland, are we in danger of falling into the trap of accepting that so called Devo Max is the compromise we must all accept to hold the Union together and appease the Scots? If so we could be creating a future crisis which could blow apart that Union in a rancorous way that will make current arguments look like a tea party.
It is one thing for the Scots to demand to bring to an end the Union created 300 years ago. That is their right, even if it seems a juvenile and illogical step to anyone looking at it objectively, especially when, as is already happening, we start looking at the details and try to unpick those 300 years of shared history and fiscal entanglements. There is a reason after all why Salmond feels the need to keep talking about Scottish gripes and plans to hold any and all events connected with independence on days of historical or cultural significance. If I were Scottish I would be furious that he feels he can get away with these serial insults to my intelligence.
The so called compromise of Devo Max however is not a compromise at all. It is an attempt by the SNP to create a semi-detached Scotland which could pick and choose which parts of the Union it wants to remain a part of, a have your cake and eat it approach. Aha, some will say, but that is exactly what Euro sceptics want to do with with the EU. The difference of course is that Britain signed up to a common market and got railroaded into a political union when all we wanted was free trade. It is also an arrangement that has only been in place for 40 years, not 300. And anyway, Scotland has a right to independence and self determination. What the SNP is trying to do, from a position of weakness given that polls indicate the Scottish people are against full independence, is negotiate itself a highly advantageous and selective position vis a vis the UK. Note it already has this. Now they want more.
Let's say that Devo Max were granted. This would mean, presumably, that Scotland would be self governing and self financing except in matters of defence and foreign policy. But this creates all kinds of problems, from what proportion of the national debt they have, how they issue new debt, to whether or not they could refuse to pay for aspects of our defence policy of which they disapprove. They would go from a situation where they just get to spend the money without having to raise it, to one where they refuse to pay for items over which they have no control. Once again England would be left with the bill, a situation quickly heightened because soon Wales and Northern Ireland would demand similar treatment.
And then there is the vexed question of the West Lothian question. In a nutshell, this wonders why it is that Scottish MPs get to vote on English matters when English MPs cannot do the same because these powers are reserved to a Scottish Parliament. Under the last government we even had a prime minister who could do that.
And this is the point. We would still be opening up a constitutional can of worms.
Let us, for the sake of argument, assume that this patently unfair situation were remedied as part of the Devo Max negotiations. Let's assume that Scottish MPs were thus barred from voting on English matters. Would this then preclude us having a Scottish PM ever again? How would they feel about that? Would that still feel like a Union?
Further, what would happen if, after a general election, one party (probably Labour) had a majority in the whole of the UK but another party (probably the Conservatives) had a majority in the rest of the UK? Who would be prime minister? Would we have to have two? We would effectively be turning ourselves into a federation. It could easily see Britain become ungovernable and thus it would break up anyway, and not in a pretty way.
Devo Max, far from being the compromise, is in fact a step too far. The signs are that David Cameron is trying to prevent the SNP from having it as a fallback option. It is not a fallback option, it is a fallout option. If the Scots want Devo Max then this is no longer a matter for them to decide alone. They would need the consent of the rest of the UK and we would likely tell them to get lost. Scotland is a proud and separate nation that joined us in a union. They have every right to end that relationship if they so choose. They do not however have the right to create a ultra generous settlement for themselves based on the threat of that independence. We might conclude that it would be better to go their own way. Whatever, David Cameron must point out forcefully that the rest of the country demands to be consulted.
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