Lib Dems back Scottish 'home rule'
The Liberal Democrats are planning to make home rule for Scotland one of their key policies at the next general election if Alex Salmond's quest for independence is defeated at the referendum, party sources have revealed.Lord Wallace, the UK government minister, told the Guardian the party would argue that Scotland should be given greater autonomy over taxation and welfare policy while remaining in the UK. The party hoped to win support for the move from Labour, he said, to build an anti-nationalist coalition in favour of home rule within the union.A former deputy first minister of Scotland, and now the UK government's Scottish law officer, Wallace confirmed the Lib Dems would continue to resist Alex Salmond's attempts to include this policy, known loosely as devolution plus or devolution max, as an alternative proposal at the independence referendum.I do think we have just got to once and for all lay the spectre of independence, and having done that, that is the foundation in taking forward proposals and building consensus, for taking devolution forward, Wallace said.I don't think we would get that consensus ahead of a referendum and I think it would just muddy the waters [to add devolution plus to the referendum]. I believe there has got to be a clear, decisive view taken. I think once that has been done it would give us a very good foundation for enhancing the powers of the Scottish parliament.He said the two policies, independence and increased devolution, were actually two completely separate things, since one was designed to modernise the UK's political set-up and the other to break it up.Salmond's government had also failed to answer Rennie's riddle, he said, referring to the question posed about a two-question referendum by Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader would the SNP agree to enhanced devolution if that won 81% of the vote while independence won only 51%?The Lib Dems are now wrestling with extending devolution into England after mounting evidence of resentment among English voters, highlighted in a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research on Monday. Simon Hughes, the UK Lib Dems' deputy president, on Saturday again called for an English parliament, but party sources said the idea had little support.Rennie said the UK party was keen instead to increase the voting rights of English MPs at Westminster, while giving Scotland greater autonomy. Talks were already under way about a cross-party, pro-devolution campaign as a counterbalance to Salmond's push for independence.We're looking at what is the credible vehicle for the delivery of it, Rennie said.In a wide-ranging interview, Wallace also accused Salmond of hypocrisy by portraying his Scottish National party government as a champion of devolution after it argued for even greater tax-raising and borrowing powers for the Scottish parliament while it remains in the UK.In his Hugo Young lecture on Tuesday evening for the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian, Salmond was again expected to attack the forthcoming powers under the Scotland bill to allow Holyrood to vary income tax by 10p in the pound and borrow at least £2.2bn.Supported by senior figures in the voluntary sector and business, Salmond argues that Scotland has been unable to pursue its own policies on taxation and social spending because it has so little control over its finances. He has accused Labour, the Lib Dems and the Tories of holding Scotland back.The SNP will hold a debate in Holyrood on Thursday on the claim of right, a key concept in Scottish politics, which asserts that the Scottish people are sovereign and can determine their own destiny without outside interference.Wallace supported attacks by former Labour ministers on the SNP for raising the claim of right after Salmond and the SNP refused to sign it when it was drafted in 1988, setting in train the civic Scotland, cross-party movement to establish the Scottish parliament in 1999.I would take them more seriously on that if they had signed the claim of right, Wallace said. I have signed the claim of right; Alex Salmond hasn't.It's a political ploy. I don't get irritated by that any longer I'm too old. And let's remember, it was the claim of right which paved the way to the Scottish constitutional convention and paved the way to the Scottish parliament, which was endorsed by the people of Scotland in a referendum.Wallace said Salmond and the SNP had resisted or failed actively to support a series of initiatives on devolution, including the constitutional convention in the 1990s and the Calman commission, set up by Labour, the Lib Dems and Tories in 2007 to propose new powers for Holyrood.By contrast, his party had championed all the key measures that had set up Holyrood and increased its powers, including a home rule commission by Lord Steel in 2006 and a new home rule commission under Sir Menzies Campbell, the former UK party leader.The SNP are a party of independence and I have always saluted the SNP because it is a party which for decades has espoused the cause of Scottish independence and has sought to do it shoes in a proper democratic fashion, Wallace said.I cannot accept, however, that in any sense they are architects of devolution. They boycotted the constitutional convention. In fairness, they supported the proposals in the 1997 referendum but they played no part in shaping them. And [on] the Calman commission we got precious little co-operation whatsoever from the Scottish government. As a member of the Calman commission, I can say that.
