Analysis: Everyone, apart from children, wins after Scottish Government's court defeat

The Supreme Court’s ruling that aspects of a key children’s rights bill was outside Holyrood’s powers is a boon to nationalists on all sides of the devolution debate.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP).

The decision, which adds further case law to the growing pile of devolution disputes and reiterates the limitations of the Scottish Parliament, will silently be celebrated by political strategists.

The immediate responses from each of Scotland’s major parties each belied the glee of either being proved right (Tory and Labour) or for having yet another grievance based on the limitations of devolution to use as a recruitment vehicle for the independence cause (SNP and Green).

The SNP, as the Conservatives and Labour put it, were found out after playing “nationalist games” and focusing on “petty constitutional bickering”.

On the other hand the decision from the UK Government to challenge the bill was “chilling” and the decision a “dark day for democracy”, the Greens suggested.

This, inevitably, belies the nuance of the decision.

The UNCRC bill itself will likely return to Holyrood to be reconsidered, amended and passed and children will, belatedly, be given the protections they deserve, albeit with the scale of those protections curtailed.

But the decision itself asks serious questions about the nature of the devolution settlement.

It is another repeat of the idea that the UK Parliament has “unqualified” power to make laws in Scotland, a power that cannot be impinged by law passed by Holyrood, even on devolved issues.

For nationalists, this will be used as ammunition for the SNP’s favourite second line of a press release, that independence is the only way to achieve Scotland’s policy goals.

Unionists, meanwhile, will use it to focus on the folly of an overreaching nationalist government more concerned with bolstering support for independence than getting on with the job.

Neither of these responses examine the central point, however, of whether devolution is right for Scotland in its current state.

The question is, is it right that Holyrood cannot apply conditions to how UK Government legislation is enacted in Scotland due to Westminster’s “unqualified” powers?

To attack that question head-on and with detailed argument would require a nuanced approach from Scotland’s politicians, something none of them have deemed worthy of their attention.

Meanwhile, on the day of the Universal Credit cut, the only losers are Scotland’s children.

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