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in the House of Commons than he is about the status of Scotland. Well, I say ‘sometimes’. I really mean - all the time. But he was far more interested in holding the reins of absolute power himself. For Gordon Brown it is now, and has always been, all about his own ego.


been paying atention, as the Tories turned themselves into an English nationalist party way back in the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher stood up at a Tory party conference and announced that she was an English nationalist. Which was the only occasion during her dismal tenure in office that everyone in Scotland agreed with her. Although now we discover that Gordie wasn’t one of them, as it seems he wasn’t listening, because the only voice that Gordie ever listens to is his own.


According to Gordie, the impending break-up of the UK has absolutely nothing to do with anything that Labour might have done or didn’t do. So it’s not at all connected with the asymmetrical devolution that Labour introduced purely for its own political advantage because it didn’t suit the party to give devolution to England. It’s entirely unrelated to Labour ignoring the increasing clamour from Scotland for greater powers for Holyrood and trying to fob us off with half baked and ad hoc proposals which have at their heart what Labour thinks is good for the Labour party. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with the party taking Scotland for granted and regarding it for decades as an MP batery farm which could be safely side-lined and marginalised. Oh no. In Gordie’s mental universe it’s all the fault of the Tories.


Poor blameless Gordie. It’s not like he was in power and was able to do anything to redress the situation. It’s not like he used to be Prime Minister, or anything, and had a chance to address these issues while he actually had some real power... Oh.


Gordie could have abolished the House of Lords and turned it into a Senate to represent the nations of the United Kingdom. Gordie could have introduced devolution for England and then the current proposals for English votes for English laws, which he warns will make Scotish MPs second class, wouldn’t arise in the first place. Sometimes you get the feeling that Gordie is more concerned about the status of Scotish MPs


Now his big idea is a constitutional convention. This was Labour policy during the election campaign, the election campaign that Labour lost. Scotland voted for the SNP and voted overwhelmingly for devo max. England voted for the Tories. Gordies’ constitutional convention isn’t going to happen. The Tories have no interest in it; why should they? They’ve got their majority in the Commons and they’re going to use it to change constituency boundaries to make it even harder for Labour to get a majority again.


The SNP have no interest in Gordie’s convention - why should they? Finding a formula which might keep the UK limping on is hardly in the interests of a party which wants independence. Keeping the UK together is the job of the Unionists, and it’s a job that they’re showing themselves to be spectacularly incompetent at. All that anyone who wants independence needs to do is to let the Unionist parties keep on shooting themselves in the foot - they’ve already demonstrated that that’s their forte, and that’s what is going to lead to Scotish independence.


According to Gordie, the impending break- up of the UK has absolutely nothing to do with anything that Labour might have done or didn’t do. So it’s not at all connected with the asymmetrical devolution that Labour introduced purely for its own political advantage because it didn’t suit the party to give devolution to England.


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