 | 'The former deputy leader of the Labour party, Roy (now Lord) Hattersley has become the government's staunchest critic over issues like welfare reform and education and, though he is too loyal to admit it in public, there is little doubt that Mr Dewar shares his friend's political instincts.' Peter MacMahon, Scottish Political Editor in the Scotsman, 1 st July 1998. |  |
The Scotland Bill became the Scotland Act on the 19 th of November 1998 when it was given Royal Assent by the Head of State, Mrs Liz Mountbatten (aka her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England and I of Scots).
There were 191 hours and 43 minutes of debate spread over 32 days in the British Imperial Parliament at Westminster, 15 in the House of Commons, and 17 in the Palace of Ignorance that is the House of Lords. More than one million words were spoken (most, of which admittedly, were verbal diarrhoea) while some 2025 amendments were tabled, of which 670 came from the Government.
Despite the time spent, the bill is still far from perfect, even from a devolutionary point of view. One glaring problem is that despite the wishes of the majority of Scots and amendments tabled by the Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats, the London Parliament will retain responsibility for broadcasting in Scotland. Scots will therefore continue to be force-fed with irrelevant London-based news and propaganda rather being permitted to watched balanced Scottish, European and World news. Another extremely worrying problem is the fact that the viciously anti-Scottish New Labour Prime Minister, New Tony Blair has personally overruled his own Scottish Office Ministers and has insisted in reducing the number of MSPs from 129 members to 108 in the early years of next century, with further savage cuts planned in the future.
Tony Blair's contempt for Scotland is well documented. He described the Scottish Parliament as a 'Parish Council' and Scottish political journalists as 'unreconstructed wankers'. He has also contradicted the Claim of Right which was signed in 1989 by every Labour MP with the exception of Tam Dalyell, claiming 'Sovereignty remains with me as an English MP and that is the way it will stay.'
Blair's problem is that devolution is a policy which he inherited from John Smith and which goes totally against the grain of his own control freak mentality. It is clear that Tony Blair considers Scotland to be the backside of the world. Unsurprisingly, when he visits, he just passes through.
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