63 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
63 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
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TOWARDS SCOTLAND'S PARLIAMENT
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(Scottish Constitutional Convention, #2.50)
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The Scottish establishment has become infatuated with constitutionalism (as
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noted in H&N9). This passion was declared in the 1988 Claim of Right for
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Scotland and in the Constitutional Convention then being concocted by the
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churches, the established "opposition" parties and those aspiring to be
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established parties. The Convention crawled along, driven and restrained by
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the cautious consensus of those who hoped there might be something in it for
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them. On November 30th 1990 (St. Andrew's Day), they convened again, to
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present their conclusions under the title Towards Scotland's Parliament.
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In his commentary, Canon Kenyon Wright announces that the Convention "will
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give new hope to Scotland, and to many far beyond, of a new form of
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democracy, which is fully participative and not just representative". But a
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search of the document for such ideas turns up nothing. Nothing - but a few
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platitudes about a possible electoral system. These can be listed briefly:
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"that it produces results in which the number of seats for various parties is
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broadly related to the numbers of votes cast for them; ...that it ensures, or
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at least takes effective positive action to bring about, equal representation
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of men and women, and encourages fair representation of ethnic and other
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minority groups; ...that it preserves a link between the member and his/her
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constituency; ...that the system is designed to place the greatest possible
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power in the hands of the electorate." (Ah yes, the electorate - almost
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forgot them!) Months of discussion led to that ragbag of insubstantial house
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rules for the political class. "Participatory democracy" appears to be just
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the establishment all getting their snouts in the trough.
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Having retreated from organising the intended referendum on their proposals,
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which might have demolished their representative credentials, the Convention
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has tried to get back onto the road with the St. Andrews Day coup.
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The credulity of the believers is again evident. Professors (Bernard Crick in
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New Statesman & Society, 7/12/90), exhibit a partisan will-to-believe which
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they would fail in a student essay, and proclaim the Claim of Right to be
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"truly on a level with the great pamphlets of the American and French
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revolutions". But this pronouncement, despite its insistence on truth, is
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sustained by nothing but electoral speculation: Will the SNP gain at Labour's
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expense or vice versa? Will SNP pressure force a Labour government to
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implement its promises?
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A few Convention supporters are more astute about the social forces involved.
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In an article situating disputes within the Scottish Conservative Party
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hierarchy in a deeper context, Neal Ascherson indicated the role of
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corporatism in structuring Scottish society: a "densely-woven mat of
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patronage and clientship whose threads almost all lead directly or indirectly
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back to the State". (Independant on Sunday, 16/9/90) However, the
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patron-client relation would survive a passage from the older
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Conservative-dominated corporatism (which Ascherson dislikes) to a modern
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Keynesian nationalism, whose prospects apparently continue to excite him.
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At root, the conventional constitutionalists are a profoundly conservative
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force, whose common interests demand patron-client relations of various
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kinds. Their complaint (again summarised by Canon Wright) is against a
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"contemporary reality of increasingly centralised authority, with its erosion
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of all alternative bases of community power, and of the traditional
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institutions which have been the foundations of Scottish identity and
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values". So these traditional institutions are looking for their nameplate on
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the pew, their place in the sun. The 1978 Scotland Act plus a little money?
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That'll do nicely. So insubstantial is their participatory democracy that it
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may even be outflanked by Conservative politicians counter-proposing an
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advisory national Senate to replace the regional tier of local government.
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Alex Richards
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650w
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[Document ends]
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From Here & Now 11 1991 - No copyright
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