In the run-up to the referendum in 2014, I found myself thoroughly disgusted with Project Fear and leading figures such as Gordon Brown sharing a public platform with the Tories and Liberal Democrats, while they all sang from the same hymn sheet, the psalm of Project Fear. However, when opinion polls started to show a majority of people in Scotland favouring independence he gave us “The Vow” it was a last-minute pledge by unionists during the referendum devised by Gordon Brown, promising the nearest thing to Home Rule, guaranteed membership of the EU, 13 frigates starting to be built on the Clyde within a year, Holyrood’s status made legally inviolate in perpetuity, the Sewell Convention made law and more, of course, a lot of this never actually happened. What did we get? On September 19, 2014, English Votes for English Laws, and since then Holyrood has been overruled several times, even taken to court to overturn the signing of a UN charter, we are out of the EU, and the power to dissolve Holyrood still rests with Westminster, and Sewell is only a custom “normally” observed. It was an attempt to sway the vote towards remaining part of the UK. a commitment that Scotland would have federal-like powers if people rejected independence and instead opted to stay in the UK.
Since then we have seen the powers of the Scottish Parliament come “under attack like never before and the Sewel Convention which was supposed to prevent Westminster from over-riding the Scottish Parliament is now routinely being breached. Laws passed in explicitly devolved areas are struck down at the stroke of the Scottish Secretary’s pen. and the Foreign Secretary is sending out threatening letters to overseas embassies trying to restrict Scottish ministers’ efforts to secure jobs and investment for Scotland. In contrast to what Gordon Brown promised, the reality is that we are about as far from a federal state as you can get – and nothing that pro-Brexit Labour are proposing in their anaemic devolution proposals will make any difference.
Jobs have been lost and living standards have been harmed because promises that Gordon Brown made were not kept, and for that, he should apologise.”
Fast-forward to the present day – Willie Rennie is no longer the LibDems’ Scottish leader, Baroness Ruth Davidson doesn’t lead the Scottish Tories and Brown, the former chancellor and prime minister is yesterday’s man, He is said to be planning another “devo-max” option in the event of indyref2, to give Scotland full economic independence, while still being subject to Westminster rule he fooled us once… will he do it again?
Brown seems to think the Union is the answer for everything when actually it’s the cause of almost everything that’s holding Scotland back. A one-trick pony now, Brown will be exalted by the unionist media for his indyref2 omni-interventions but thankfully they will fall flat with the people of Scotland whose ambition for Scotland seems to have simply outgrown Brown’s and the Labour party.
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