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Johnstone's View 9th May 2008

Congratulations to Boris Johnson on becoming the new Mayor of London.  Even on the days leading up to last Thursday, I spoke to dozens of people, by no means all of them Conservatives, who were looking forward with delight at the prospect of Boris achieving an even more elevated political profile.  He really has caught the public imagination, offering the prospect of a more light hearted approach to the serious subjects of the day from a man who, unusually among politicians, doesn’t take himself too seriously.

In my office in Edinburgh somewhere, carefully filed, I have a letter from Boris Johnson, dated some time late in 2006, in which he promises to come to the North East of Scotland to see for himself just what an important part the region plays in the economy of the United Kingdom.  I will be writing to him again and including a copy of his original handwritten reply in the hope that this flamboyant character may find the time to drop in.

The London result was only one of a series of defeats on a bad night for the Labour Party in local elections across England and Wales.  Although there were a couple of local government by-elections held in Scotland on the same day, the fact that there were no wide spread council elections in Scotland helped to hide Labours embarrassment, for if there had been they would have discovered that the same depth of disillusionment has spread North of the border too.

It’s at times like this that those of us who find common cause need to work together to defend our common interest.  In this respect, I find myself and Scottish Labour Leader Wendy Alexander, sharing an interest in preserving Scotlands place within the United Kingdom.  Its for this reason that the Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament have worked hand in hand with Labour and the Liberal Democrats to establish the Scottish Constitutional Commission, under the chairmanship of Sir Kenneth Calman, whose job it is to look at Scotlands devolved settlement, ten years on, to see what changes may now be appropriate.

Last weekend, having seen her party savaged in the South and knowing full well that exactly the same thing could have happened in Scotland, Wendy Alexander suffered a massive, and very public, panic attack.  Without warning, and without consulting any of her political partners in the Constitutional Commission, she reversed her previous position and called for a referendum on Scottish independence.

Now I am well aware that there are people in all parties, including my own, who believe that an independence referendum should be held before the next Scottish election scheduled for 2011.   I am not one of them, never have been and I am happy to tell you why.

You may remember, some years ago, the similarly named Scottish Constitutional Convention came up with the proposals for Scottish devolution, which were later enshrined in the Scotland act.  Although Conservatives and Scottish Nationalists declined to become involved, Labour and the Liberal Democrats were at the very heart of the process.  It was Labour MP, and then shadow Secretary of State for Scotland George Robertson, who famously stated that devolution would, "kill Scottish Nationalism stone dead".  Ten years in, we have a SNP government in Edinburgh.  Ms Alexanders’ move to “call Alex Salmonds bluff” does nothing for me but trigger a feeling of déjà vu.  

What Scotland needs today is exactly what voters in England and Wales were crying out for when they cast their votes last Thursday.  We need a change of economic direction designed to create wealth at least as quickly as governments are able to tax and spend it.  The weakness of the last 11 years has been that every growth target has been missed and income forecast exaggerated.  At a time when we need to be finding new ways to create the wealth which will pay for our future public services, we are allowing ourselves to be dragged into an irrelevant constitutional struggle. 

While this is a recognised tactic frequently used by our first minister to great effect, most of us recognise it for what it is.  In her moment of weakness, Wendy Alexander seems to have taken the bait and by so doing will lead us down an unwelcome path.

Only a gambler would seek a referendum on a policy which they themselves do not support.  Whatever he may say, should the First Minister not win a mandate on his policy for independence, he will simply hold another referendum when he thinks his chances have improved.