Brown pledges to back extra Holyrood powers

Published on Friday 6 March 2009 21:02

GORDON Brown yesterday announced his support for sweeping new powers for the Scottish Parliament, saying he would endorse any major changes that improved the lives of Scots and strengthened the Union.

The Prime Minister used a speech to the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee to make it clear he expected to give his full backing to the recommendations of the Calman Commission into the devolution settlement.

"If there are measures in this report which help Scots and strengthen the Union, I will support them," he declared.

His decision to give such enthusiastic backing to the Calman Commission before it has even reported represents a major change in attitude in No 10.

The Prime Minister was cautious when the commission was set up, calling it a review and suggesting it might lead to powers being transferred back to Westminster from Holyrood.

But, in the wake of the Scottish Labour Party's submission to the commission, which included a call for borrowing powers for the Scottish Parliament, Mr Brown has now, for the first time, given his clear backing, not just to the commission but to its recommendations as well.

Sir Kenneth Calman is not due to report until later this year. He is expected to produce a range of suggestions, ranging from the transfer to Holyrood of individual responsibilities such as firearms or drugs to the endorsement of a wholesale revision of the way Scotland is funded. He may endorse the idea of assigning tax revenues or back borrowing powers for the parliament, either of which would mean significant changes for the way Holyrood operates.

Aware political and public opinion has moved towards more powers for the parliament, Mr Brown said: "There may be things we can do to enhance the successful devolution settlement we introduced in 1999."

But he was adamant that there was a huge difference between strengthening devolution and moving towards independence.

The Prime Minister also used his 22-minute speech to link the economic crisis and the worldwide banking collapse with the Nationalist movement, arguing an independent Scotland would never have managed to rescue the country's two major banks.

He said: "When Scottish banks collapsed, the whole of the United Kingdom came together to stand by our banking system to prevent the banks from going under altogether, with an investment bigger than the Scottish administration's entire budget and giving guarantees that no country the size of Scotland could ever have been able to give.

"You cannot retreat into a separatist dogma, you cannot separate yourself off and opt out of the world. You solve a global problem, not by separatist solutions but by us all working together."

Mr Brown elaborated on his four-point plan, which, he believes, could make sure the world never again has to suffer from a global banking crisis.

Setting out his blueprint to change the whole culture of banking all over the world, he said that, because banks were so international, government action had to be international too.

He called for global action to crack down on tax havens, end the short-term bonus culture, regulate the entire financial system, not just individual firms, and build a better framework of international regulation.

Mr Brown also invoked the spirit of the miners' strike in an attempt to persuade Labour activists they could get through the current economic crisis showing the same solidarity and sense of community that had seen them through the tough days of the early 1980s.

He said: "I grew up in Kirkcaldy, a mining area, that, like all mining areas, struggled with the closure of the pits. And, as those brave men left their jobs on the final day, I learnt a lesson that stays with me to this day: that struggle didn't bring forth selfishness – it summoned up solidarity and showed that deep in the Scottish character is the sense that we are each and all our brother and sister's keeper."

Analysis: Suddenly, that commission really does matter

Hamish Macdonell

GORDON Brown is hardly the most spontaneous of politicians. Indeed, it has taken him more than a year to come round to the idea of the Calman Commission.

When it was set up by Wendy Alexander, then his protg, last year, the Prime Minister was standoffish, at best. He called it a "review", rather than a commission, and suggested it might provide a way of clawing powers back from Holyrood. It was clear he was uncomfortable with the idea of strengthening the powers of the Scottish Parliament, and while he allowed Ms Alexander the space to develop the commission, it always appeared as if he would treat its recommendations with intense suspicion.

Yesterday's speech marked a remarkable turnaround in Mr Brown's approach to Calman. Not only did he endorse the commission and say there might be ways of enhancing the devolution settlement, he went further and said he would back its recommendations.

However, not able to escape his cautious instincts, he added the caveat that he would back any recommendations that strengthened the Union and improved the lives of Scots.

This allows him a get-out if he doesn't like what Calman suggests, but it is not much of a get-out. By enthusing about the commission and its eventual recommendations, Mr Brown has given the body a credibility it has never had before.

It was set up as little more than a talking shop for the three main unionist parties and it needed official Downing Street endorsement to elevate it into a proper, influential position. Mr Brown has given it just that.

Calman's recommendations will live or die by the will of No 10. Any changes to the powers of the Scottish Parliament, particularly alterations to the way the Scottish Government is funded, need to be achieved through Westminster legislation.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister appeared to give his backing to that legislation, which means changes to the way the Scottish Parliament operates are virtually guaranteed. It is no coincidence that Mr Brown's endorsement came only days after Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader, tabled his party's formal submission to the Calman Commission.

So Mr Brown's speech represents not only the official endorsement of the Calman Commission, it also shows Mr Gray has the total support of Downing Street – which, if nothing else, should make him feel much more confident.

The Calman Commission has mooched around in the background of Scottish politics for the past year without really lighting up the landscape. It didn't appear as if it was going to achieve very much. After yesterday's developments, however, that whole impression is likely to alter.

The process of changing the devolution settlement may indeed have begun.

LABOUR DIARY

Let's drink to that

IT'S good to see Scottish Labour doing its bit in the crusade to crack down on alcohol.

Anybody stopping for a chat at the main Labour Party stand in the conference hall was offered a free glass of wine from 9:30am on the very first morning. Officials stressed the offered booze was politically correct – Fair Trade Pinot Grigio.

Three times a loser

THERE was something of a spread-bet fever when Gordon Brown stood up to speak.

The market was set at three mentions of his "good friend" Barack Obama but Mr Brown surpassed himself, and expectations, by including five in his short speech.

Spinners in a spin

LABOUR'S media machine seems to be caught in a spin cycle.

Rami Okasha, who works for the Scottish Labour Party, Simon Pia and Andrew McFadyen are all in Dundee with none apparently knowing what the other is doing. A united message? Hardly.