Gerry Hassan: First big test for coalition's 'respect' agenda

THE Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies will be beginning to think they are unloved and uncared for by the Westminster parliament.

Plans to establish five-year, fixed-term UK parliaments meant 7 May, 2015, would be a day when voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland voted in two sets of elections at the same time - devolved and UK contests. Now they have gone and done it again, proposing that the Alternative Vote (AV) referendum is held on 5 May, 2011, the same day as the elections to the devolved bodies.

Scottish Secretary Michael Moore has written to the Scottish Government, saying he "recognises the concern that exists" and promising to "engage" with the relevant parties. One option is to move the 2015 Scottish vote, but he has said nothing about 2011.

The central question here isn't about the process of the vote, the vote counting or organisation, but what it would do to the respective campaigns and the democratic process, and what it says about British politics, devolution and power, and how Westminster sees all of these.

All UK referendums, of which there have been nine significant votes (one across the UK, two each for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, one in the north-east of England and one in London) have never been combined with an election, and the practice is rare around the world. Any combined referendum and election would pose huge challenges to the mostly London-centric media, making it nearly impossible to disentangle the different contests. This would be even more problematic for broadcasters, who are required to be "balanced" during elections.

At the same time, referendums have evolved a set of conventions that involve a 50:50 split in coverage between both sides.

We have been down this tricky road before, when the Electoral Commission faced the prospect of a 2003 euro referendum being held on the same day as the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish votes.

The commission issued a ruling on combining a referendum and devolved votes on the same day, which stated it had serious "concerns" driven by protecting "the interests of the voters". It commented that, while "there might be a beneficial effect on turnout" of having the two votes together, there were "a number of disadvantages". These include the consideration that "cross-party campaigning on a fundamental referendum" could cause voter confusion if combined with normal party electioneering. Then there was the risk that "the dominance of the referendum issue would influence other polls" and do so "to an extent that may compromise the electorate's will in those other polls".

A major concern of the commission was that "not all of the electorate would experience the same conditions for considering a major referendum issue".

Taking all of this into account, the commission decided that "a referendum on the single European currency should not be held at the same time" as the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish votes. It is a powerfully unambiguous ruling, which still carries resonance today.

This creates a significant precedent that should be listened to in today's circumstances. Any move to hold the AV vote and devolved contests on the same day would put Britain into a unique and isolated position in the world. Alone among the world's democracies, it would say this was an appropriate way of doing things.

It would provide yet another example of the entrenched Westminster way of going about things, which has a limited understanding of the nature of the UK and devolution. This would point towards Westminster viewing the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish contests as second-order elections and not really that important. Already, a pattern has built of submerging Scottish contests in wider UK and international issues. The first Scottish Parliament elections were shaped by the Kosovo conflict. The 2003 elections were dominated by the Blair-Bush invasion of Iraq, which had started weeks before the poll, and the 2007 contest by Mr Blair's long, drawn-out, goodbye.

Are we really saying it is all right for the 2011 and 2015 Scottish Parliament elections to be overshadowed by UK-wide debates and polls? What this would mean in total is that the first five Scottish contests would be submerged in British issues.

That can't be a satisfactory situation, yet we should ask what kind of British politics and government is it that is content to preside over this state of affairs? The Blair era had little understanding, sympathy or vision of devolution, and saw it as a historic pledge it could not get out of and had to fulfil; after that, it was back to the serious business of HMS Great Britain and proper statecraft. The Cameron-Clegg administration has come in promising a fresh start, with much of the same rhetoric: "a new politics", "modernisation", "overhauling our discredited political system". However, already the limits of these intentions are being shown, and the reality is that, more and more, Westminster doesn't really understand the complex, hybrid nature of the Union.

One would hoped for a little humility from the Westminster political classes and village, considering the low stock of MPs and our entire political system, which has presided over the biggest economic, social and democratic crisis our country has seen since the Second World War.

But that would require some self- reflection, which is entirely lacking from the Westminster way of doing things; far easier to just keep the whole show on the road.

The AV referendum vote is a fascinating issue that says a lot about what passes for business as usual in Westminster. To allow the referendum and devolved contests to go ahead on the same day will show how deep is the rot in Westminster and the hollowness of the Con-Lib Dem "new politics". It will signal the end of the brief flowering and hope of any "respect" agenda between the two parliaments.

Will the UK government listen and act with carefulness and consideration? I have my doubts, but whichever way they go will reveal a lot about the nature of this government, devolution and where power sits in the UK. zz