We need second question, says Wright

Published on Friday 27 January 2012 00:00

One of the architects of devolution is to launch a campaign for a second referendum question on more powers for Holyrood.

Canon Kenyon Wright spoke out as MSPs debated the Claim of Right, a document that the cleric was first to sign.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted the principles of the document, which is exhibited in the National Museum of Scotland, underpinned the right of Holyrood to take charge of the independence referendum in the current power struggle with Westminster.

“There has never been a more important moment to recommit ourselves to the guiding principles of the Claim of Right that the people, the Scottish people, are sovereign,” she told MSPs.

But the Nationalists faced opposition flak for having refused to sign the document in 1989 during the campaign for a Scottish Parliament. This was because the body behind it, the Scottish Constitutional Convention, had ruled out independence.

Canon Wright, who headed the convention, said the option of more powers was in line with the principles of the Claim of Right. “If you begin by saying that we recognise the sovereign right of the people to determine how they will be governed, then why are you offering the people only two extreme options – either total independence or the status quo,” he asked.

But he dismissed the term “devo max”, claiming it sounded like a “soap powder”.

He added: “I am going to put forward in the next few weeks in Scotland, as an alternative, the title ‘secure autonomy’.”

The 1988 document was based on the original Claim of Right passed by the Scottish Parliament of 1689.

It asserts “the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of government best suited to their needs and declares and pledges that in all its actions and deliberations their interests shall be paramount”.

Ms Sturgeon insisted the ethos at the heart of this should be borne in mind by coalition ministers, in the clash with Holyrood over the referendum. Disagreements remain over the SNP’s sympathy for multiple questions, as well as 16- and 17-year-olds getting a vote.

“The principle remains it’s not for any politician or political party in any parliament to place constraints on the sovereignty of the Scottish people,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“There’s no justification for Westminster trying to impose conditions on the way this parliament carries out its democratic mandate.

“The UK government, with only 12 Scottish MPs, has no mandate to overrule a bill passed by the parliament of Scotland.”

But the SNP government was branded out of touch with “ordinary people” who were grappling with chronic unemployment and cutbacks.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “This parliament is often rightly criticised for being irrelevant to the lives of ordinary people and this afternoon I have to wholeheartedly agree with that criticism.”

He went on: “Whilst people in Scotland lose their jobs at a rate of 200 a day, college students fear for their ability to secure a course or bursary, supply teachers are in crisis, nurse numbers cut, child poverty spiralling and the social housing budget cut by a third, what are we discussing?

“Whether or not to reaffirm to something that the government party didn’t sign up for in the first place.”

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