One glaring omission among new SNP bills

Published on Wednesday 8 September 2010 18:51

ALEX Salmond has issued a slimline list of new laws for the final session of the Scottish Parliament before next year's elections, blaming opponents for his decision to ditch the government's flagship plan for a referendum on independence.

The First Minister unveiled plans to free Scottish Water to expand its business, and to scrap the historic double jeopardy law, preventing people from being tried twice for the same offence.

But with the referendum bill having been pulled earlier this week, he was left to face taunts from Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray that his flagship policy had become a "ghost ship".

Mr Salmond attempted to make up for the absence of any independence referendum bill by using the annual statement to declare bluntly that "devolution, as we knew it, is over". He said with cuts to public services about to hit Scotland, there was no longer any logic to maintaining the status quo, under which the Scottish Parliament is funded almost entirely by a block grant from Westminster.

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He argued the coming cuts to budgets made it imperative to get full tax-raising powers for the parliament, so it could create "a new dynamic Scottish economy". Gaining further powers would end the culture at Holyrood where MSPs simply blamed Westminster for their woes, he said.

"We stand for giving the people the chance to say what they do want. The chance to endow this parliament with such powers that there is no question of saying 'it wizny me' because the responsibility lies clearly with the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish people," he said.

However, without the referendum bill, Mr Salmond was left exposed to attacks from opponents over his failure to deliver. Both Labour and the Tories noted how policies from previous statements, such as plans for a local income tax, had also not made it to a vote.

However, Mr Salmond claimed there was no point bringing the bill forward when it was clearly about to be voted down.

"If the arithmetic of this chamber denies the will of the people, then we shall take our case to the country," he announced, stating his aim to put the referendum at the heart of next year's election campaign.

Mr Salmond's legislative statement had been broadly anticipated, apart from the announcement on Scottish Water, the publicly owned utility. The First Minister categorically ruled out any change in its ownership, including a move to a so-called "public interest company".The move comes with ministers facing pressure to put Scottish Water at arms-length, so it can borrow from the open markets, rather than the taxpayer.

The First Minister said the utility should remain firmly in the public sector in order to capitalise on what he was the country's greatest asset - its water.

Anticipating a growing global need for water, he said privatising or mutualising Scottish Water "would be like selling Saudi Arabia's oil reserves on the eve of the invention of the combustion engine".

Instead, legislation will be introduced allowing the utility to expand its commercial activity. Government officials said this would, for example, allow it to set up wind farms on the 80,000 acres of land it owns, or include fibre optic cables in its pipe network.

The First Minister noted that the number of bills on offer - ten in total - was four more than the Labour-led coalition had proposed prior to the 2007 election.

However, political opponents described the package as "insubstantial". Seizing on the absence of the referendum bill, Mr Gray said the former flagship measure had become "a ghost-ship flitting eerily in and out of view from time to time".

The Labour leader also noted how previous legislative statements had proposed policy reforms - such as the introduction of local income tax and the reduction in primary school class sizes - which were also subsequently ditched. "Every year, he has failed to deliver," he said.

On the attempt to hold a referendum, Mr Gray said: "We've had four programmes for government, three consultations, a national tour of sparsely attended town halls, endless drafts of a three-part question that nobody could understand and what is the First Minister going to produce out of all of this? He's going to produce an election leaflet.

"There will be no bill for this parliament but there is a 2 million bill for the taxpayer."

Annabel Goldie, leader of the Scottish Tories, described the package as "the final nail in the coffin for Alex Salmond's political credibility".

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott complained there had been lots of talk but no real change from the SNP.