Comments on Yapping Yousuf: Leading the agenda

Yousaf it's very simple. If these measures are re...

2009-06-17T10:43:04.639+01:00

Yousaf it's very simple. If these measures are really implemented in the space of 10 months - which I rather doubt - it will be proof positive that voting SNP delivers progress for Scotland.

That is an inducement to vote SNP, whether or not you support independence. Independence will of course be decided directly by the people in a referendum, not by a cabal of politicians behind closed dooors.

What Calman has done therefore is to demonstrate beyond doubt that voting SNP gets results. Don't even pretend that any of this would have happened without an SNP victory - we all know it wouldn't have.

"The truth is that their was no democratic deficit...

2009-06-16T21:33:33.028+01:00

"The truth is that their was no democratic deficit in Scotland. Instead devolution was about something far more important: bringing democracy closer to the people and the fact that it wasn't always represented as this was a failure of the Yes campaign."

You might want to reword this Yousuf.

"There was no democratic deficit in Scotland. Instead there was a democratic deficit" is the short version of the above.

Calman's report will be yesterday's news very quickly and I daresay most Scots don't know much about it. There is no mandate for it without it having either been in a winning manifesto or having a referendum.

Labour are in a very tricky spot.

"One is holding the Government to account" Yeah, ...

2009-06-16T17:52:21.889+01:00

"One is holding the Government to account"

Yeah, the Labour Group leader at Holyrood is doing a grand job of that. 7% of Scots want him as FM.

"The second is setting out an alternative vision which becomes more important as an election comes closer and that's what you will see over the next 2 years."

Somehow I think it may be difficult to sell an 'alternative' to voters that stinks of compromise and grudge. And even harder given the activity-free disaster area that the Labour grassroots has become. But good luck with it all the same.

Wardog it's very simple opposition is a 2-stage pr...

2009-06-16T17:35:19.785+01:00

Wardog it's very simple opposition is a 2-stage process. One is holding the Government to account and that has been very easy with a set of broken promises from the SNP.

The second is setting out an alternative vision which becomes more important as an election comes closer and that's what you will see over the next 2 years.

HP - the remit was deliberately broad so that he c...

2009-06-16T17:32:13.166+01:00

HP - the remit was deliberately broad so that he could be as radical as is deemed necessary.

A thoughtful well obseved post Yousef. I think wha...

2009-06-16T16:56:29.269+01:00

A thoughtful well obseved post Yousef. I think what is missing though from the Calman process is democratic endorsement.

If, as you say, devoltion is about extending democracy rather than dishing the nats, surely this is essential for such a radical extension of our parliament's powers?

Leave it all to a committee of politicans headed by Jim Murphy to decide? How old poltics, what a wholly iinaprpriate was to mark a decade of devolution.

Scottish Labour Party?? What's Scottih about it?!

2009-06-16T16:52:48.448+01:00

Scottish Labour Party?? What's Scottih about it?!

i think you miss a few points. contrary to the med...

2009-06-16T15:58:29.967+01:00

i think you miss a few points. contrary to the media report, calman didnt "dumfound his critics" he dumfounded those he founded the report. calman was for more radical than the vague remit he was given by wendy et al stipulated.

also, even if you take labours figures, at the very very least 25% of the country is in favour of independence, so to completely ignore it as an issue shows that the remit of calman was still indicative of labours post 2007 defeat denial.