Steve Richards
by Steve Richards
I have spent the last month in a different political world from the one I am used to. As Scotland prepares for its historic referendum next year on independence, comment pages in the Scottish newspapers are crammed with columns relating to the referendum. Each day there are front-page news stories on the latest twists and turns. Bump into any politician in Scotland, political adviser or pollster, and the talk turns intensely to the battle ahead.
Yet the battle is already won. In its political culture and its powers to define what form that culture takes, Scotland is already so incomparably different from England that a form of separation is taking place in front of our eyes. Even in the absurdly artificial environment of the Edinburgh festival it is impossible to avoid the sense that Scotland and England are separating even if, as the pollsters here predict, there is no formal divorce next year.
The referendum plays an ambiguous role in the unstoppable sequence. Without doubt, insular, parochial England should pay more attention to a referendum that is definitely taking place instead of obsessing about one on Europe that might never be held. And yet, inadvertently, the indifference is not entirely misplaced. Of course, if Scotland were to vote for independence there would be a tumultuous constitutional crisis months before a general election – but even if there were to be such a dramatic outcome, the trauma would be felt more at Westminster. Scotland has already made its moves and will continue to do so.
There have been three staging posts that will, I suspect, prove to be more significant than next year’s referendum. The first was the establishment of the Scottish parliament after the 1997 election. At the time it seemed to be an act of New Labour expedient caution.
The more influential ministers in the coalition ache above all to radically challenge the role of the state, to achieve the reverse of the 1945 Labour government. Remarkably, given that they rule in a hung parliament, they have found the space to pursue their radical ambitions. Few in England voted for a revolutionary overhaul of the NHS, the near privatisation of universities, a further decline in the power of local government, a framework for education that paves the way for a return to selection and the introduction of profit-making schools, but that is what they are getting. In their fervent disdain for the state as a mediating agency, ministers focus with special energetic intensity on areas over which they happen to have no powers in Scotland.
As a result Scotland becomes more markedly different than ever. In Scotland the NHS is spared the haphazard revolution in England. The education secretary, Michael Gove, is powerless to impose his resolute will on schools in Scotland and the same applies to his other more evangelical colleagues moving England rightwards. Without doing very much Scotland becomes more different because of what is happening in England. The limited powers handed over to the Scottish parliament are precisely the ones that partly protect it from the ideological mission of the Westminster government. The cautiously incremental New Labour settlement becomes the basis of historic distinctiveness.
The campaign for independence is currently seeking to convey an awkward message. In an attempt to reassure the many undecided voters, its current broad theme is that the referendum is a moment of epic significance, but do not worry, nothing much will change if they vote for independence. Any campaign with a contradictory message is in some difficulty. And yet although the message from advocates of independence is too complex to resonate in what will become a noisy contest, it speaks to a broader truth. The referendum is historic and yet, in Scotland at least, change will be limited because so much is changing anyway. Soon England will wake up to the fact that a referendum is taking place of historic note. After that it needs to wake up to the fact that, irrespective of a single campaign next year, Scotland is going its own way, a course of travel triggered in 1997 and with some distance to go. THE GUARDIAN
by Steve Richards
I have spent the last month in a different political world from the one I am used to. As Scotland prepares for its historic referendum next year on independence, comment pages in the Scottish newspapers are crammed with columns relating to the referendum. Each day there are front-page news stories on the latest twists and turns. Bump into any politician in Scotland, political adviser or pollster, and the talk turns intensely to the battle ahead.
Yet the battle is already won. In its political culture and its powers to define what form that culture takes, Scotland is already so incomparably different from England that a form of separation is taking place in front of our eyes. Even in the absurdly artificial environment of the Edinburgh festival it is impossible to avoid the sense that Scotland and England are separating even if, as the pollsters here predict, there is no formal divorce next year.
The referendum plays an ambiguous role in the unstoppable sequence. Without doubt, insular, parochial England should pay more attention to a referendum that is definitely taking place instead of obsessing about one on Europe that might never be held. And yet, inadvertently, the indifference is not entirely misplaced. Of course, if Scotland were to vote for independence there would be a tumultuous constitutional crisis months before a general election – but even if there were to be such a dramatic outcome, the trauma would be felt more at Westminster. Scotland has already made its moves and will continue to do so.
There have been three staging posts that will, I suspect, prove to be more significant than next year’s referendum. The first was the establishment of the Scottish parliament after the 1997 election. At the time it seemed to be an act of New Labour expedient caution.
The more influential ministers in the coalition ache above all to radically challenge the role of the state, to achieve the reverse of the 1945 Labour government. Remarkably, given that they rule in a hung parliament, they have found the space to pursue their radical ambitions. Few in England voted for a revolutionary overhaul of the NHS, the near privatisation of universities, a further decline in the power of local government, a framework for education that paves the way for a return to selection and the introduction of profit-making schools, but that is what they are getting. In their fervent disdain for the state as a mediating agency, ministers focus with special energetic intensity on areas over which they happen to have no powers in Scotland.
As a result Scotland becomes more markedly different than ever. In Scotland the NHS is spared the haphazard revolution in England. The education secretary, Michael Gove, is powerless to impose his resolute will on schools in Scotland and the same applies to his other more evangelical colleagues moving England rightwards. Without doing very much Scotland becomes more different because of what is happening in England. The limited powers handed over to the Scottish parliament are precisely the ones that partly protect it from the ideological mission of the Westminster government. The cautiously incremental New Labour settlement becomes the basis of historic distinctiveness.
The campaign for independence is currently seeking to convey an awkward message. In an attempt to reassure the many undecided voters, its current broad theme is that the referendum is a moment of epic significance, but do not worry, nothing much will change if they vote for independence. Any campaign with a contradictory message is in some difficulty. And yet although the message from advocates of independence is too complex to resonate in what will become a noisy contest, it speaks to a broader truth. The referendum is historic and yet, in Scotland at least, change will be limited because so much is changing anyway. Soon England will wake up to the fact that a referendum is taking place of historic note. After that it needs to wake up to the fact that, irrespective of a single campaign next year, Scotland is going its own way, a course of travel triggered in 1997 and with some distance to go. THE GUARDIAN
