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Been catching up with Starmer's 'big speech'. @ifanmj @JYDenham @ProfJMitchell etc have all had interesting things to say.
To my mind it's vacuous stuff, but the lack of substance is itself telling, at least from a Welsh perspective...
1 https://labourlist.org/2020/12/a-socially-just-scotland-in-a-modern-united-kingdom-starmers-full-speech/
To my mind it's vacuous stuff, but the lack of substance is itself telling, at least from a Welsh perspective...
1 https://labourlist.org/2020/12/a-socially-just-scotland-in-a-modern-united-kingdom-starmers-full-speech/
The first point to make is that @WelshGovernment is the only part of the Labour party to give really serious thought to the future of the UK. Here’s the key summary document
https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-10/reforming-our-union-shared-governance-in-the-uk.pdf
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https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-10/reforming-our-union-shared-governance-in-the-uk.pdf
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Labour’s 2019 manifesto represented a major setback for the Welsh Govt’s constitutional agenda compared to the 2017 version as the previous pledge to devolve justice was dropped in the face of resolute support for the status quo among most Welsh Labour MPs 
But...
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But...
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At least there was a specific commitment in the 2019 manifesto to ensuring that Labour’s much vaunted Constitutional Convention would consider the Welsh Govt’s ideas as outlined in the document above.
A year later, though, and even that’s disappeared!
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A year later, though, and even that’s disappeared!
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Why? One suspects that part of this is about personality/ego. When Labour launched a very similar initiative to today’s in Cardiff back in 2017, it was clear that Gordon Brown was intent on having his own way.
He was once and will be again the Great Redeemer...
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He was once and will be again the Great Redeemer...
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But I also wonder if substance is also an issue? The Welsh Govt is clear that the Union is voluntary with secession a possibility. Yet is it increasingly clear that Scottish Unionists are seeking ways of making secession practically impossible.
E.g. http://scottish.fabians.org.uk/a-new-act-of-the-union/
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E.g. http://scottish.fabians.org.uk/a-new-act-of-the-union/
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What's the betting that a Starmer/Brown convention would seek to insist that a simple majority for Scottish independence would not be enough in any second referendum?
Westminster sovereignty trumps voluntary association & hello super-majorities!
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Westminster sovereignty trumps voluntary association & hello super-majorities!
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Then there’s the issue of finance. We know that an overwhelming majority in England think that relative levels of public spending in Scotland are unfairly high. The Welsh Govt wants to see Barnett being replaced by a needs based formula, which would hit Scotland hard.
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Strikingly, Starmer had *nothing* to say about this today. Yet perhaps no it's surprise given that past experience suggests that Brown will be very, very reluctant to allow any heretical thoughts to emerge on this issue from any putative Convention.
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Lots more to say but two points to conclude
FIRST given that this was his major speech on devolution and the future of the Union, it’s remarkable how easy Starmer seems to have found it to ignore not only the ideas but even the very *existence* of the Welsh Government!
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FIRST given that this was his major speech on devolution and the future of the Union, it’s remarkable how easy Starmer seems to have found it to ignore not only the ideas but even the very *existence* of the Welsh Government!
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TWO while Brown gets to influence Starmer, ultimately it’s the people of England who'll decide the shape of the UK. To succeed, any Labour proposals must go with the grain of English opinion – a subject on which @AilsaHenderson & I will have *much* more to say in early 2021
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