Devolution works when powers are used

Sir, – Can we try to get this nonsense about a constitutional crisis and threats to devolution in to some perspective please?

Us leaving the EU had implications for 111 areas of legislation that might affect devolved areas of responsibility, and nearly 80% of those will now be devolved directly to the Scottish parliament.

Of the remainder, there are aspects of them which do need to be considered at a wider UK level.

If you are a farmer or business which trades south of the border, you will be concerned that this is fully considered.

We know that data, pollution, GMOs and many other issues do not respect borders, and therefore appropriate management of these issues at a wider level is required.

After the 2014 referendum, all the parties in the Scottish parliament got together and negotiated a package of further devolution measures, all of which have been implemented, or will be implemented once the SNP work out how to use them, or if they can.

This has been the recent direction of travel.

The only threat to devolution is having a government here that will not use their powers to best effect.

The whole point of devolution was to achieve more effective government and outcomes in Scotland.

If the outcomes are worse, as many of them now are, many people will begin to wonder what we are actually getting for this extra layer of government.

That is the real threat here, a pretend government playing games with real powers and responsibilities, and not recognising the harm that they are doing across many walks of public life here.

Victor Clements. Taybridge Terrace, Aberfeldy.