  
TOWARDS SCOTLAND'S PARLIAMENT

(Scottish Constitutional Convention, #2.50)
The Scottish establishment has become infatuated with constitutionalism (as 
noted in H&N9). This passion was declared in the 1988 Claim of Right for 
Scotland and in the Constitutional Convention then being concocted by the 
churches, the established "opposition" parties and those aspiring to be 
established parties. The Convention crawled along, driven and restrained by 
the cautious consensus of those who hoped there might be something in it for 
them. On November 30th 1990 (St. Andrew's Day), they convened again, to 
present their conclusions under the title Towards Scotland's Parliament.
In his commentary, Canon Kenyon Wright announces that the Convention "will 
give new hope to Scotland, and to many far beyond, of a new form of 
democracy, which is fully participative and not just representative". But a 
search of the document for such ideas turns up nothing. Nothing - but a few 
platitudes about a possible electoral system. These can be listed briefly: 
"that it produces results in which the number of seats for various parties is 
broadly related to the numbers of votes cast for them; ...that it ensures, or 
at least takes effective positive action to bring about, equal representation 
of men and women, and encourages fair representation of ethnic and other 
minority groups; ...that it preserves a link between the member and his/her 
constituency; ...that the system is designed to place the greatest possible 
power in the hands of the electorate." (Ah yes, the electorate - almost 
forgot them!) Months of discussion led to that ragbag of insubstantial house 
rules for the political class. "Participatory democracy" appears to be just 
the establishment all getting their snouts in the trough.
Having retreated from organising the intended referendum on their proposals, 
which might have demolished their representative credentials, the Convention 
has tried to get back onto the road with the St. Andrews Day coup. 
The credulity of the believers is again evident. Professors (Bernard Crick in 
New Statesman & Society, 7/12/90), exhibit a partisan will-to-believe which 
they would fail in a student essay, and proclaim the Claim of Right to be 
"truly on a level with the great pamphlets of the American and French 
revolutions". But this pronouncement, despite its insistence on truth, is 
sustained by nothing but electoral speculation: Will the SNP gain at Labour's 
expense or vice versa? Will SNP pressure force a Labour government to 
implement its promises?
A few Convention supporters are more astute about the social forces involved. 
In an article situating disputes within the Scottish Conservative Party 
hierarchy in a deeper context, Neal Ascherson indicated the role of 
corporatism in structuring Scottish society: a "densely-woven mat of 
patronage and clientship whose threads almost all lead directly or indirectly 
back to the State". (Independant on Sunday, 16/9/90) However, the 
patron-client relation would survive a passage from the older 
Conservative-dominated corporatism (which Ascherson dislikes) to a modern 
Keynesian nationalism, whose prospects apparently continue to excite him.
At root, the conventional constitutionalists are a profoundly conservative 
force, whose common interests demand patron-client relations of various 
kinds. Their complaint (again summarised by Canon Wright) is against a 
"contemporary reality of increasingly centralised authority, with its erosion 
of all alternative bases of community power, and of the traditional 
institutions which have been the foundations of Scottish identity and 
values". So these traditional institutions are looking for their nameplate on 
the pew, their place in the sun. The 1978 Scotland Act plus a little money? 
That'll do nicely. So insubstantial is their participatory democracy that it 
may even be outflanked by Conservative politicians counter-proposing an 
advisory national Senate to replace the regional tier of local government.
						Alex Richards
							650w
[Document ends]
From Here & Now 11 1991 - No copyright
