This weekend’s Scottish Mail On Sunday carries a column from UK Cabinet Office minister Damian Green which, if anyone was still in any doubt, rings just about every warning bell imaginable in terms of the Tories’ plan to use Brexit to cripple devolution both in principle and in practice.
It’s tucked away on page 27 and doesn’t appear on the Mail’s website, but you can read the whole thing by clicking the pic above. And below, we’ve pulled out the key sentences that should have the blood of devolution-loving No voters running cold.
We struggled to summon up much more than a weary sigh about a story in a couple of the minor papers today (the Herald and Express), about a micro-scuffle at Saturday’s pro-indy rally in Glasgow. The most interesting thing about it appeared to be that the Express had written its article several hours before the event took place.
Three years ago today, Scotland bottled it. Almost uniquely in world history, its people turned down the chance to take control of their own affairs forever without a drop of blood being shed. They did so on the back of a package of vague promises, not least one of “extensive new powers”, almost all of which have subsequently been broken.
The Secretary of State for Scotland has chosen the anniversary of the referendum to let it be known that on top of that, the most fundamental building block of devolution – the premise that any power not explicitly reserved to Westminster in the Scotland Act 1998 would belong to Holyrood – will now be torn up, in the light of the exit from the EU that Scots were promised a No vote would protect them from.
The Daily Record have continued to run Kezia Dugdale’s weekly column despite her resignation as Scottish Labour branch office manager (North British division), and this week we were interested to note her assessment of the devolution years, which could be summarised neatly as “Labour devolution good, SNP devolution bad”.
We raised an especially quizzical eyebrow at the claim that the 1999-2007 Labour/Lib Dem administrations had apparently ended homelessness. So we thought we’d do that thing we do when Kezia Dugdale claims something.
This was Scottish Tory uberdunce Jamie Greene a few weeks ago, bitterly attacking the SNP for spending £22,000 on consulting the public over a policy on which the party won a landslide victory in the 2016 Holyrood election.
You might think that a government pursuing the manifesto policies it was elected on was a pretty legitimate thing to do, especially when it was asking voters for their views in order to shape that policy. Perhaps Greene was confused because the Tories have been acting as if they, not the SNP, won the election. But that raises another question.
A story from the Financial Times this week revealed the UK government’s latest act of sabotage against the Scottish renewable energy industry. It’s just one more in a long line stretching back to just after the independence referendum, when a string of “Better Together” promises were broken almost the minute the No vote was secured.
It was a particularly weak argument in the first place – if there’s a market in the rUK for Scottish energy, it’ll be there whether Scotland is independent or not. But it unravelled faster than most as soon as it had done its job.
20 years ago today, Scotland voted to have a Parliament for the first time in almost three centuries, by an overwhelming margin (although with modest enthusiasm – less than 10% more people actually voted for devolution than voted for independence in 2014, at 1.78m and 1.62m respectively).
Just 20 months after the vote the Parliament came into being, and Scotland’s media has been complaining about how useless it is ever since.
Today’s newspapers commemorate the anniversary by unleashing the full pontificating weight of the punditariat – most of whom have been opining wearily on Holyrood’s failings for the entire period – to bleat with their customary single voice about what a disappointment it’s all been.
The weird thing is that after all that time, none of them can actually explain why.
Alf Baird on The Narcissism Of No Differences: ““I think the Union is a great thing” Scotland was annexed in 1707, there never was any ‘union’, and continued…” Apr 25, 19:53
Insider on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “James says: 25 April, 2026 at 1:38 pm Name those benefits. Go on. Enlighten us. Well you’re the expert on…” Apr 25, 19:00
Confused on Push The Button: “WTF is this “Prisoners Dilemma” for the r3t4rded? do we need to draw the payoff matrix? You could do that…” Apr 25, 17:56
Mark Beggan on Push The Button: “This is another example of Colonial suppression of the mass body. A clear indication of the manipulation of colour against…” Apr 25, 16:44
GM on Push The Button: “Aye. Well, I suppose I could bring in as man of my own conditions as I like and take a…” Apr 25, 15:59
Effijy on Push The Button: “With food, energy, housing all short of supply governments will find a way to reduce the population. It already has…” Apr 25, 15:54
Blackhack on Push The Button: ““There is no spoon”” Apr 25, 15:02
Dan on Push The Button: “All a bit too binary and simplistic, but that is seemingly the new standard with the all to prevalent internet…” Apr 25, 14:56
David on Push The Button: “Keza Dugale cannot even push a button .” Apr 25, 14:45
Mark Beggan on Push The Button: “The buttons should be black or white.” Apr 25, 14:40
Phil on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “Certainly! OK, off the top of my head… Significant transfers every year (the rUK supports Scotland financially to the tune…” Apr 25, 14:39
Northcode on Push The Button: ““…there’s no cost to pressing red.” God might take a different view… His intelligence being infinite, and His logic somewhat…” Apr 25, 14:39
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Push The Button: ““accepting that everyone staying alive is a good thing without question” Why would you accept that?” Apr 25, 14:23
Andy Wiltshire on Push The Button: “Is it August?” Apr 25, 14:18
GM on Push The Button: “I am more interested in the motivation here. The fact there is a condition set on the blue button, 50%,…” Apr 25, 14:09
Northcode on How To Get Away With Crimes: ““…it is not ‘normal’ for ‘a people’ to ‘crave dependence’ on another supposedly ‘superior’ culture…” There can be no rational…” Apr 25, 13:40
Alf Baird on How To Get Away With Crimes: ““Under UK law criminal activity, including threats against individuals or groups, motivated by ideology is terrorism.” Indeed, and British identity…” Apr 25, 13:17
LondonScot on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Under UK law criminal activity, including threats against individuals or groups, motivated by ideology is terrorism. Perhaps a report to…” Apr 25, 10:37
Alf Baird on How To Get Away With Crimes: ““it thinks like a nutter” Indeed, which explains why the colonial mindset is considered ‘a disease of the mind’ (Memmi).…” Apr 25, 10:35
Chas on How To Get Away With Crimes: “If it thinks like a nutter and writes like a nutter, there is an excellent chance that it actually is…” Apr 25, 09:31
Aidan on How To Get Away With Crimes: “@CC – you’ve got your own company, you got anything going for him?” Apr 25, 07:01
Phil on The Narcissism Of No Differences: “My heart and head both say NO Insider. For I am a ‘yoon’. I think the Union is a great…” Apr 25, 00:57
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on How To Get Away With Crimes: “‘CONSIDERING A SEX SWAP? THINK AGAIN’, WARNS DETRANSITIONER A detranstioner who once took male hormones and had a double mastectomy,…” Apr 24, 22:26
Grace Green on How To Get Away With Crimes: “If men like the subject of this article were genuine they would have had surgery. In reality they are actors,…” Apr 24, 20:41
Aidan on How To Get Away With Crimes: “Fuck me that’s some shame for the Alliance, having someone like “James” associated with them. Ouch – I’ve been critical…” Apr 24, 20:30
