Too little, too late

On the northward trek by the troika of Cameron, Clegg and Miliband: the most charitable
response would be “too little, too late”. A less generous reaction might be to recall John Major in 1991, in an interview with Neal Ascherson [recounted in the latter’s book, Stone Voices].

“I had a brief conversation with him about Scotland and about devolution, which he
dismissed as ‘loopy’. The problem, he said amiably, was much simpler. ‘The Scots just feel left out of things up there, and I have a good deal of sympathy with that. I ought to go there much more often and so should the rest of the Cabinet. If they see us around more, they’ll feel a lot less cut off’ ”. Says it all, then and now.

David C Peedie

Senior Fellow

Carnegie Council for
Ethics in International Affairs

New York