They’ve had 20 years to do it, so when will MSPs start raising their game?

THIS year will mark the 20th anniversary of the Scottish parliament opening its doors to a new era of devolution. However, the real birthplace was in Westminster, two years earlier, when the late, great Donald Dewar launched the Scotland Bill with his trademark warmth and wit.

‘There shall be a Scottish parliament,’ he announced. The future inaugural First Minister of Scotland then paused, before adding: ‘I like that.’

When people learn that I was special adviser to Donald, when he became First Minister, there are two questions that I am normally asked.

First, did I write one of his other famous speeches, given at the opening of the Scottish parliament in 1999, and second, what do I think Donald would make of the way the parliament operates now?

In 1999, noting the parliament’s mace would be inscribed with his words ‘There shall be a Scottish Parliament’, Donald said: ‘Through long years, those words were first a hope, then a belief, then a promise. Now they are a reality. This is a moment anchored in our history.’

While I would love to claim credit for that speech, my only involvement was making sure the media had their copies prior to his delivery on that great day in Edinburgh 20 years ago.

I remember that day vividly. Thousands of people lined the streets to cheer and there was special applause for First Minister Dewar both when he walked up The Mound and later that night as he toured the special events which had been organised to mark such a historic occasion.

I wonder how many people would turn out today?

Sadly, Donald only served as First Minister for 17 months before his untimely death in October 2000.

Yet in that short time he had led a coalition government that had put in place the plans to design and construct the building that is now home to the Scottish parliament at the foot of the Royal Mile.

So what would he make of the way devolution has developed in the past two decades?

KNOWING him as I did, I am confident his impression would be one of disappointment. That’s a view shared by another former Labour first minister, Jack McConnell, who wrote recently that he found the parliament ‘dull and uninspiring’ and failing to engage the nation it is supposed to serve.

I’m pretty sure Donald would like the building and consider that all the fuss that surrounded its construction was worth the end result. It’s what’s happening, or not happening, inside the debating chamber he would take issue with.

Donald was a gentleman, but also a fierce intellect.

He was known and feared for his debating skill but he would have little opposition for the annual Scottish Press Award that bears his name – the Donald Dewar Debater of the Year.

Anyone who watches proceedings regularly will know how turgid many of the contributions are.

The fact speakers are timelimited does not help. There’s not a lot you can say in a four-minute contribution.

Donald enjoyed a good argument and he would certainly be disparaging of front bench speakers, who get more time, for not engaging in proper debate.

I also believe he would not be impressed by First Minister’s Questions. Since the SNP took power it has developed into First Minister’s Speeches.

Week after week, no matter what is asked by the opposition leaders, Nicola Sturgeon, just like Alex Salmond before her, avoids giving a straight answer.

She indulges in attacking the person who had the impertinence to try to criticise the SNP Government or tries to blame evil Westminster before concluding that things can only get better when Scotland becomes independent.

Humour is in short supply. I well remember Alex Salmond prefacing a question to Donald by saying he had got some information from watching Ceefax at 1.15am that morning.

Donald dryly observed that he could think of many things to be doing at 1.15am – but watching Ceefax would not be one of them. Brought the house down.

Donald did not go in for long answers but there seems little control over the length of time Ms Sturgeon takes to reply to any question and, even though FMQs has now stretched to 45 minutes, the number of backbench members who get in is limited.

What is worse is that if they are from the SNP there seems to be a weekly competition to see who can suck up to the leadership the most.

Indeed, the SNP’s obsession with independence has blighted the second decade of devolution.

I am sure Donald would consider they wasted the opportunity they were given when they achieved a majority of the seats in 2011.

Where, then, was the raft of policies developed by Nationalist thinkers? A party that initially wanted to get rid of the hated council tax and replace it with local income tax could have voted that through but didn’t.

Instead, the whole of that parliament was taken up with the referendum at the expense of the domestic issues the parliament was established to tackle.

Even now in health, waiting times targets are not being met, there’s a housing shortage, teachers are in a pay dispute and we cannot even get our trains to run on time, yet still we are told if only Scotland were independent all would be well.

Donald would have disliked intensely the way the SNP uses its power to silence criticism by attacking any who dare to speak against it.

Another issue I’m pretty sure Donald would have abhorred was the election of an SNP member as Presiding Officer in a parliament where the SNP was in the majority. That’s not to question the abilities of Tricia Marwick, who was that Presiding Officer, but rather a comment on the way the SNP likes to press home any advantage, putting party interests before parliamentary interests.

IN much the same way, the SNP took convenerships of all the main committees, preventing any real scrutiny of its Government’s performance. That was not how it was supposed to be. The committees were supposed to provide check and balance over the administration, but it has not really worked out that way.

Yet, just this week the SNP again flies in the face of proper democracy by appointing the Nationalist MSP and Deputy Presiding Officer Linda Fabiani to chair the committee that will look at how First Minister Sturgeon has handled the Salmond affair.

In looking at the Scottish parliament now, the man who did more than most to create it would also be deeply disappointed by the performance of his own party.

From winning the most seats in 1999 Scottish Labour is now the third largest behind the SNP and Tories, parties initially hostile to the whole idea of devolution but who have perhaps adapted better to the different voting system.

Over the past 20 years there have been two coalition governments, one SNP minority administration and one with a majority and currently the SNP is again a minority administration kept in power by a handful of Green MSPs.

Donald had been a believer in devolution for Scotland and his driving ambition was to see the creation of a new assembly or parliament that would enable Scots to take decisions here in Scotland.

While negotiating the terms of the Scotland Act, which led to the creation of the Scottish parliament, his motto was a simple one: anything that could be devolved should be devolved.

I am certain he would have supported the additional powers the Scottish parliament has gained, and he would have been stunned by the SNP refusal to use those extra powers for the benefit of the people of Scotland, especially the tax-raising powers.

He would be equally astonished at the SNP asking Westminster to take some of the powers back.

I walked past Donald’s statue at the top of Glasgow’s Buchanan Street the other day and thought how deeply disappointed he would be by the current performance of the Scottish parliament, so different from the heady days of 1999. The challenge for MSPs for the next 20 years is to raise their game.