Hats and Rabbits



Dan Hodges hits the nail on the head with his blog in The Telegraph because the sudden emergence of Gordon Brown as a 'leading figure' serves only to highlight how completely ineffective Labour has been during the referendum campaign.

And the prospect of a federal UK is a very big deal constitutionally speaking, as Dan Hodges says, so if the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour were all really serious they would all have an agreed plan - a Plan A if you like, never mind the fabled Plan B so beloved of Better Together supporters during debates on a possible currency union.

So as things stand this all sounds as if they're making things up as they go along, trying to pull political rabbits out of the hat as the campaign twists and turns, first one way and then the other.

Cynical and arrogant is how I would describe this kind of behaviour and I speak as someone who would, once upon a time, been supportive of Devo Max or a federal system of government for the UK.

But why should I trust people and politicians who treat the voters as such fools? 

Because it's only a matter of a few months since they all took the view that I am too stupid and potentially confused to be asked two separate questions on the same ballot paper.          

Scottish independence: what does the political establishment think it's playing at?

By Dan Hodges - The Telegraph

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

OK, what the hell is going on here? What, precisely, does Gordon Brown think he’s doing? More to the point, what exactly does the rest of the British political establishment think it’s doing?

Yesterday, our former prime minister emerged to tell us that he had a proposal for a new constitutional settlement if the Scots vote “No” in next week’s referendum. It wasn’t an official proposal, he explained. Just a little something he’d cooked up after chatting with people in his local constituency.

Downing Street, seemingly taken off guard, initially distanced themselves from it. Then, a few hours later, they said they were welcoming it. By then Ed Miliband had popped up to welcome the plan as well. Even though Brown had claimed he was talking solely for himself, not his party.

By the evening Gordon’s chat with a few of his constituents had become a full-blown plan to recast the Union. It was, Brown said, nothing less than a move towards a federal Britain. “A new Union is being forged in the heat of debate”, he said.

Great. But what debate? I’m not involved in it. You’re not involved in it. Unless I’m missing something, no one in England, Wales or Northern Ireland is being given a say over this radical new constitutional arrangement.

I’m not missing something. Gordon Brown was crystal clear yesterday. “These reforms will confirm that Scotland has helped changed not just our own country but the United Kingdom,” he announced.

Well, thanks for that. But I’m afraid that’s not Scotland’s prerogative.

Scotland is currently holding a referendum over whether it wishes to secede from the Union. It’s a simple Yes/No question. Do you want to stay, or do you want to go? Not, “do you want to unilaterally establish the English, Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh Federation.”

I’ll repeat, what do our politicians think they are doing? Whether or not Scotland remains a part of the Union is a matter for the Scottish people alone. It’s right they are having their referendum, and that they should have sole say over their destiny. But that is no longer what is on the table. What is now being proposed – we are being told – is nothing less than an entirely new constitution for the United Kingdom as a whole. And no one other than the people of Scotland appears to be getting a say on whether they agree with it or not.

Actually, let me rephrase that. No one but the politicians appears to be getting a say.

What we are currently witnessing defies the imagination. The reason why we are being confronted with the spectacle of Brown, Cameron, Miliband, Clegg et al rushing around – frantically drawing up a new constitution on the back of a fag packet – is that they are currently terrified at the prospect of the people of Scotland voting for independence. And why are the people of Scotland contemplating that move? Ask any politician, commentator, pollster or political observer, and they’ll give you the same answer: it’s because the voters are turning away from the political establishment and its old way of doing things.

So what is the old political establishments response to that? It is literally saying: “No, you mustn’t do that. We know we told you we’d let you have your say. But we think you’re going to say the wrong thing. We can’t allow that to happen. You must do something else. Here, try this.”

At least, that’s what the political establishment is currently saying to the people of Scotland. To the other citizens of the UK, it’s saying the following: “Keep your noses out. We’ve decided we’re going to save the Union, come what may. What type of Union comes out of the end of this process is a matter for us. You lot will find out in due course.”

Over the last few years, each of the main three parties has embraced a fashionable new concept. Englishness. Ed Miliband, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have all given major speeches on the subject. Conferences have been held. Pamphlets written. Books published.

There was, all the parties agreed, a need to demonstrate to the people of England that their culture, identity and constitutional aspirations were as important to the political establishment as that of our Scottish, Welsh and Irish cousins. To be honest, I was sceptical about that agenda. And I was right to be.

This afternoon the concept of Englishness is being flushed unceremoniously down the toilet. And when that process is completed, the heads of every English, Welsh and Northern Irish voter will be shoved down the toilet along with it.

In their desperation to save it, the Union’s defenders are starting to resemble that US army officer who explained during the Vietnam War that “we had to destroy the village in order to save it”. If – as Gordon Brown says – a new Union is indeed being forged in the heat of debate, then everyone who is a part of that Union must participate in that debate. And if we can’t, then we’re not a Union at all.

I’d assumed that if the Scots voted “No” then each of the major parties would then come up with their own ideas for a new framework for Scottish devolution, and put those ideas to the British people at the next election. Crazy, old-fashioned stuff like securing a democratic mandate.

But that’s for the birds. Instead, each of the parties has been bounced into supporting the Brown Plan, which is now going to be presented to the Scottish people as a binding commitment. No one, not even the voters of Scotland, are going to be offered the chance to actually vote for it.

This is utter madness. I’ll repeat, it is precisely this sort of arrogance by the political class that has created this crisis in the first place. But because everyone has become fixated on “saving the Union”, our politicians and their followers are simply saying: “hey, that’s not a bad idea, it might just work”.

For how long? Does no one in Westminster understand how this looks to people outside of Westminster? The spectacle of the man who was overwhelmingly rejected at the ballot box four years ago suddenly emerging to unilaterally rewrite the British constitution because he and the rest of his political chums have decided a democratic referendum is not going the way they think it should.

What do people think the implications will be for the general election? And the proposed Euro referendum? Nigel Farage may as well start measuring the Downing Street curtains now.

“To save the Union we must destroy the Union”, our leaders are saying to themselves. And if they carry on like this, they most definitely will.

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