Andy Burnham’s big plan for the UK is still lacking in detail, but it’s already looking suspiciously like another of Westminster’s power grabs at the expense of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments. Burnham’s big speech on Monday during which he unveiled his plans for a Number Ten North. No, Scotland, not THAT north, Burnham’s north. This plan has more than a whiff of “GB Energy will be headquartered in Aberdeen” about it.
The Prime Minister in waiting’s model for devolution is the system of English regional mayors, which unlike the national parliaments of Scotland and Wales cannot pose any threat to the supreme power of Westminster. It seems that in Burnham’s eyes there is no substantial difference between the national parliament of one of the smaller countries in this supposedly voluntary union and an English regional council headed by an elected mayor.
It is deeply worrying that the man who is likely to be the UK’s seventh prime minister in ten years has set out his intention to radically reform the system and substance of the devolution settlement without bothering to trouble himself with informing, never mind consulting with, the devolved governments in Edinburgh, Cardiff or Belfast.
Burnham then used his speech to come out with anti-Holyrood attack lines like “Dundee is as distant from Edinburgh as it is from Westminster.” You can guarantee that the example of Dundee was chosen simply because Burnham wanted to name check a Scottish city that wasn’t Glasgow or Edinburgh. Dundee voted 57% in favour of independence in 2014 and has voted consistently for SNP MPs and MSPs ever since. Given the general rise in support for independence across Scotland since 2014, it’s highly likely that support for independence in Dundee now exceeds 60%. So no, Andy, Dundee is not as distant from Edinburgh as it is from Westminster, and choosing that example merely illustrates how little you understand Scotland. That lack of understanding of Scotland which pervades Westminster governments is precisely the reason why devolution is so important.
It sounds very much as though Burnham’s intention is, as I wrote in this blog recently, to go over the head of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd and give powers to Scottish and Welsh local authorities thereby weakening Holyrood and the Senedd and creating alternative power structures in Scotland and Wales where Labour has a chance of taking control and which pose no threat to the supremacy of Westminster with pesky demands for independence referendums.
The use of the English title mayor is very telling. Scotland has never had mayors, it has provosts or convenors. Yet the Labour manifesto for the recent Scottish Parliament contained the following pledge: “Passing a Local Democracy Act, to push decision making power out of Holyrood so local people have more of a say over public services in their area and have the right to elect regional mayors.”
This looks very like what Burnham is proposing now. However, Scotland voted on this Labour promise as recently as May and resoundingly rejected it. It figured prominently in Labour’s manifesto for the Holyrood election in which Labour in Scotland went down to its biggest defeat in the history of devolution. Labour now looks as though it seeks to by-pass the democratic will of the people of Scotland and impose its rejected manifesto on Scotland anyway, all in the supposed name of “deepening devolution” that’s the very antithesis of what devolution is supposed to be about. This isn’t devolution, it’s another Westminster power grab pretending to be an extension of devolution. It’s really just another Westminster attempt to divide and rule.
Burnham has had years to think about how the devolution settlement works and yet what he comes up with is to open a government office in Manchester to do as yet unspecified things and a proposal to take powers from the Senedd and Scottish Parliament so he can give it to local councils. This is all to be imposed top down from Westminster despite the referendums mandating the Senedd and Holyrood. In his speech Burnham said: “It is time for Whitehall to accept that growth cannot be ordered from the top down – it can only be nurtured from the bottom up.” Quite. Ordering from the top down is exactly what he’s doing here. We can be certain that the irony escapes him. This is all giving “making it all up as he goes along” vibes.
If this guy is the great hope of the Labour party it looks like they’re in for a big disappointment.
Burnham’s big problem is that control of local government is devolved in Scotland and Wales. He cannot impose regional mayors in Scotland or Wales without Holyrood or the Senedd passing the necessary legislation but the Labour party has only a small and diminished presence in both parliaments. This problem has been compounded by Burnham’s arrogance in announcing the changes he seeks without first consulting or informing Edinburgh or Cardiff. In Burnham’s new vision for the Labour government, Scotland is just another region which he’s going to put right.
But Scotland is not just another region. It’s not a Greater Manchester or a Yorkshire. It’s a country in its own right and moreover the country which together with England and the possessions of the English crown founded the United Kingdom. Scotland cannot be compared or equated with any English region, it can only be compared or equated with England as a whole. Yet that is a truth which no British prime minister can admit to, because to do so makes a tacit admission that Scotland’s parliament is to be compared with and equated to Westminster itself.
If Burnham was at all serious about devolution in Scotland and Wales then he’d take his cue from the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, both of which have well thought out and clearly articulated ideas of what powers their respective countries need.
Scotland needs control over energy policy and control of the power to hold another independence referendum. It’s a safe bet we’ll get neither from Burnham. What we will get is an attempt to make Holyrood, not Westminster, give away powers while BBC Scotland and the British media in Scotland cheer on this so-called “deepening of devolution”.
If this is the big “reset” in Westminster, Labour is doomed in Scotland.
After wrestling for hours with PayPal, I have finally compiled a list of the emails of almost everyone who makes a regular monthly donation to the blog and will soon launch the weekly bonus premium email article for those who make a monthly contribution to the blog. I had hoped to launch this this week but unfortunately it will be delayed for a while. There are a number of people whose emails I am unable to find. Some people donate monthly by Ko-Fi, one makes a monthly donation to last year’s GoFundMe fundraiser, a few people make monthly payments directly by bank transfer. I cannot access the email addresses of any of these people and so cannot add them to the new mailing list. If you are one of these folk, please email me at weegingerbook@yahoo.com and I’ll add you to the mailing list.
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