"Consensus: the process of abandoning all beliefs." - Margaret Thatcher.
I wrote earlier that the English don't do politics, they only do power. Here are some reflections on events related to this theme:-
1. The European Union. The European Union runs on compromise and consensus: Germany does it, Brussels does it, and the entire machinery of European governance depends on it. The result is that nobody gets everything they want, but everybody gets enough to be going on with. Everybody except the UK, that is - if the UK doesn't get what it wants, it'll Brexit from the whole enterprise.
2. The Cunningham Amendment. A clever ruse that scuppered the 1979 devolution referendum, a brilliant elevation of form over substance, about as clever as dropping the ball in the hole and saying you've won the match. It didn't win hearts and minds - instead it alienated them with its cynicism. And those hearts and minds made their views very clear over the next twenty years.
3. The UK Alternative Vote Referendum of 2011. An unbelievably trivial debate, a short and mind-bogglingly perfunctory exploration of issues, and then we were all back to the usual UK yah-boo politics, where consensus and compromise are deliberately written out of the system.
4. Finally, the No campaign has shown us confrontational attitudes at their peak - no exploration of common ground, hectoring the opposition, patronising the voters and trivialising every discussion of policy. There was no planning on the No side; if this is the most important decision that Scottish voters will ever make, you might think that an offer would have been set out earlier than eight days before polling, when the UK party leaders came to Scotland. The debate had actually started with a far more conciliatory tone. In April 2007, in his Telegraph article, David Cameron wrote, "The wrong response ... is to try to cow or bully Scotland into remaining part of the UK through fear of the economic consequences of going it alone. This will not work." But his advice was ignored, and the No campaign is bringing about its own downfall by showing UK politicians in their true colours.
Because they don't compromise, because they go only for power and not for a meeting of minds, UK politicians never take their partners with them, and they never will. We vote Yes because Scots can do better than this.
1. The European Union. The European Union runs on compromise and consensus: Germany does it, Brussels does it, and the entire machinery of European governance depends on it. The result is that nobody gets everything they want, but everybody gets enough to be going on with. Everybody except the UK, that is - if the UK doesn't get what it wants, it'll Brexit from the whole enterprise.
2. The Cunningham Amendment. A clever ruse that scuppered the 1979 devolution referendum, a brilliant elevation of form over substance, about as clever as dropping the ball in the hole and saying you've won the match. It didn't win hearts and minds - instead it alienated them with its cynicism. And those hearts and minds made their views very clear over the next twenty years.
3. The UK Alternative Vote Referendum of 2011. An unbelievably trivial debate, a short and mind-bogglingly perfunctory exploration of issues, and then we were all back to the usual UK yah-boo politics, where consensus and compromise are deliberately written out of the system.
4. Finally, the No campaign has shown us confrontational attitudes at their peak - no exploration of common ground, hectoring the opposition, patronising the voters and trivialising every discussion of policy. There was no planning on the No side; if this is the most important decision that Scottish voters will ever make, you might think that an offer would have been set out earlier than eight days before polling, when the UK party leaders came to Scotland. The debate had actually started with a far more conciliatory tone. In April 2007, in his Telegraph article, David Cameron wrote, "The wrong response ... is to try to cow or bully Scotland into remaining part of the UK through fear of the economic consequences of going it alone. This will not work." But his advice was ignored, and the No campaign is bringing about its own downfall by showing UK politicians in their true colours.
Because they don't compromise, because they go only for power and not for a meeting of minds, UK politicians never take their partners with them, and they never will. We vote Yes because Scots can do better than this.
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