Lots of chat about whether #devolution has been worthwhile this morning, and I understand why some who, like me, favour Scotland remaining in the UK might think it was a mistake given the state of things today. But anyone involved in trying to improve Scots law pre- and post-1999

could tell you it was an absolute sea-change. Pre-devolution, membership of the Scottish Grand Committee of the House of Commons was just one of many duties of Scottish MPs, but it was also essentially the only route to Scots law reform. The lack of parliamentary time was a huge

stumbling block to making progress in significant areas like family law, sexual offences law (much of which was ancient and unfit for purpose), and a whole range of other areas. After 1999 we had a whole parliament of representatives available to scrutinise and engage with reform

proposals, and changes that improved people's lives began happening quickly and efficiently. It's easy today to think of the devolved parliament as little more than an amplification device for grievance nationalism. But that was neither its purpose nor its original behaviour, and

nor does it need to be its continuing use. Our parliament can and should be focused on solutions for improving lives, from ensuring our children's education, to properly funding and empowering councils to deliver world-class public services, to stewarding the resources we need to

succeed as an economy and a society. The promise of 1999 was absolutely fulfilled in the early days. We can and should get back to it.

Just to add to this - because it's an essential element I should have included originally - we shouldn't lose sight of the point of devolution being to bring power closer to those it affects. When decisions about Scots law were being made in Scottish Grand Committee there was

little visibility and even less scrutiny of that process. The only people who even talked about it were those who unavoidably had to grapple with it. In 1996 the nascent Equality Network was instrumental in ensuring that the newly created sex offenders register didn't

accidentally include gay men convicted under Scots law of consenting acts. This was considered so arcane a concern at the time that the main UK LGBT lobbying organisations hadn't even noticed, and weren't interested in pursuing it. My basic observation then, which I maintain

today, is that any legal system requires a legislature focused on it in order to effectively maintain it. The existence of Scots law requires the existence of a Scottish Parliament.