Mrs May must lose ‘blind spot’ over Scotland
MY ten-year-old son is getting quite good at magic. He knows the key is to distract with one hand while performing sleight of hand with the other. Politics is a little like that too, yet the key to really knowing what is going on is not to get distracted by what is being waved in your face, but to search for what you can’t see.
It is worth bearing that in mind when considering the way in which the UK and Scottish Governments shout and growl at each other. All that bickering and arguing in public gives the impression that, not only do the two administrations never talk to each other, but relations are so strained the two sides would never agree on anything, even if they could get round a table.
But there has always been far more to the relationship between the Edinburgh and London Governments than has ever met the eye.
Back during the early days of devolution, there were private channels of communication between Holyrood and Westminster that made things easier for both administrations.
It helped, obviously, that Donald Dewar had served in Tony Blair’s government before becoming First Minister and was a personal friend of Ministers in London. It helped too that there were senior Scots in top positions, such as Robin Cook at the Foreign Office and Gordon Brown at the Treasury.
The trend continued under Henry McLeish and although Jack McConnell was the first First Minister not to have been an MP, there were plenty of Scots in and around No 10 to ensure that the nation’s interests were taken seriously in London.
The election of an SNP Government in 2007 might have changed things. But there were still enough Scots in senior positions – not least in No 10 when Brown took over – to ensure the ‘back channels’ still operated.
David Cameron was much maligned by the Nationalists but he still surrounded himself with enough Scots when he was first elected, particularly among his advisers, to make sure that he kept on top of Scottish issues.
It is difficult to exaggerate quite how important this is. Ministers and departments on opposite sides of the Border have to liaise on a whole range of issues – and most of this cannot be done in public. It has to be done behind the scenes. Countless potential problems – many of them financial – have been smoothed away through a quiet chat here or a phone call there.
ONE senior Scottish Government insider explained it to me like this: ‘Some things are really important to Scotland but don’t amount to very much in London terms. It is vital there are people down there who get that, who understand how little needs to be done in London to make a great deal of difference up here.’
This brings us to Theresa May’s Government. Mrs May has many talented people in her administration but, unfortunately, she has a massive ‘blind spot’ as far as Scotland is concerned.
Over the past few weeks, Scottish Ministers have come away from meetings with their UK counterparts appalled that not only do Mrs May’s Ministers not understand Scotland’s concerns; they don’t even seem to know which areas the Scottish Government controls.
‘Some of them don’t even understand devolution,’ the Scottish Government source said.
One senior UK Minister apparently had to be reminded recently that what he was suggesting would not apply north of the Border as the issue in question was under the control of Holyrood.
Mrs May would probably argue that she has a Scots MP in her Cabinet (Scottish Secretary David Mundell), but that is
NICOLA Sturgeon travels to Dublin tomorrow, following a well-worn First Ministerial path. When Jack McConnell visited the Irish capital 12 years ago, he came back with the smoking ban – prompting Holyrood speculation as to which policy gift Miss Sturgeon will bestow upon her return. One Conservative MSP quipped: ‘The Irish like to keep having referendums until they get the right result – I don’t think she will need much persuading to adopt that one.’
not what this is about. This is about having advisers who know Scotland, who know the issues and can shepherd the Prime Minister around potential minefields rather than letting her walk straight into them.
One of Scotland’s best allies in Whitehall in recent years was Danny Alexander, the former Lib Dem MP who was plugged into everything as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
He was disparaged in public by the Nationalists. Yet it was he who stopped many disputes blowing up because he understood what was important north of the Border and how to head off grievances before they happened.
And now? There isn’t a single Scot in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Treasury team. While this is understandable, given that there is only one Tory MP in Scotland – and Mr Mundell cannot be everywhere – it would surely help if Mr Hammond had someone close to him who could keep those back channels open.
SINCE 2007, when the SNP came to power, Scotland has never had a government of a similar political hue to the rest of the UK. Yet the two administrations have managed to co-exist, relatively harmoniously, because they could communicate in private when they needed to. The danger now is that, with the arrival of Mrs May, these lines of communication have been severed.
If that is indeed what has happened, there will be no ‘back channels’ and nobody to prevent minor grievances becoming full-blown disputes.
All that is left is the growling and arguing in public, which will cease to be a distraction and become the main event.
Mrs May has insisted she is a committed Unionist and is determined to keep the Union together.
If she really does want to do that, one of the best ways of keeping relations amicable between Edinburgh and London is to find more people who understand what is going on north of the Border and keep them close to the corridors of power in Westminster.
It isn’t magic. It’s just politics; good, proper, grown-up, sensible politics. Politics which might keep the UK together.