The Calman Commission – something of a curate’s egg of a set of suggestions – Continue reading
Tag Archives: Calman Commission
Northern Ireland leaves Scotland frustrated in lowering alcohol limit for drivers
The Northern Ireland Government has taken the initiative and is to lower Continue reading
Westminster move to force GM food crops into Scotland
Moves afoot at Westminster to strip the Scottish Government of its powers over labelling food and content Continue reading
Shonaig MacPherson ducks No Confidence vote and announces resignation in 2010
One of the most damaging reigns to the public perception of the National Trust for Scotland Continue reading
Former Lord Advocate calls for review of devolved power over nuclear weapons
Lord Murray, former Lord Advocate, has called on the Calman Commission established by the UK Government to review devolution, to examine ways of bringing under Scottish control the weapons of mass destruction stored here (in Argyll). In doing this, Lord Murray has lent his support to ongoing calls for such action from trade unionists, religious leaders and anti-nuclear campaigners.
The former Lord Advocate argues that the use of such weapons is illegal and that the very possession of them may contravene international law. He recommends that their control should be incorporated into Scotland’s constitutional arrangements.
As we have reported before, around two hundred thermo-nuclear warheads are stored at Coulport on the Rosneath peninsula, in the Royal Navy Armaments depot there. Up to forty-eight of these are taken to sea from Faslane on the Gare Loch, eight miles away, in one of the four Trident nuclear submarines operating out of there under the Clyde’s reliable cloud cover.
The Calman Commission was established by Gordon Brown in December 2007 following a request from former Leader of the Holyrood Labour MSPs, Wendy Alexander and with the support of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives but not of the Scottish Government.
Submissions already made to the Commission on the subject of nuclear weapons include those from trade union, Unison; the Church of Scotland; and the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Unison wants to see control over nuclear weapons in Scotland pass to the Scottish Government. It notes the majority votes of both Scottish MPs at Westminster and MSPs at Holyrood against the replacement of Trident. It suggests that these votes indicate that this is the view of the Scottish people and that devolved controls would enable such views to guide action.
The Church of Scotland points out that Scottish public opinion on nuclear weapons and on the replacement of Trident is very different from that of the UK as a whole. It suggests that the Commission might explore ways in which the views and wishes of different parts of the UK might be reflected in some new structure.
The Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament points out, through co-ordinator John Ainslie, that a change of one line of a Scotland Act clause reserving control of nuclear weapons to Westminster might be enough ‘to give the Scottish Parliament the power to prohibit their deployment in Scotland’. Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Roman Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has supported the Scottish CND submission.
With Couport and Faslane – and weapons storage silos in Glen Douglas – all in Argyll, there is considerable local interest in this matter.
The Commission is to publish its first report before the end of this year with its final report to come in 2009.
The Glenrothes effect kicks in – Brown now open to more tax powers for Holyrood
What a difference a by-election makes., particularly when it’s close to home. Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, speaking at last night’s Confederation of British Industry (CBI) dinner in Glasgow said that there was no ‘unthinking opposition to change’.
He said that ‘The Scottish Parliament is wholly accountable for the budget it spends, but not for the size of its budget. And that budget is not linked to the success of the Scottish economy and that’s why we’ve asked Calman (Ed: the Calman Commission set up by Westminster to examine devolution arrangements) to look carefully at the financial accountability of the parliament’.
Scotland’s Finance Secretary John Swinney, speaking to the BBC, noted that twelve months ago Gordon Brown was implacably opposed to any change in the powers devolved to Holyrood. He ‘welcomed where the prime minister had arrived at in his speech. He is now accepting that Holyrood needs more financial power and that is a very welcome step forward’.
First Minister Alex Salmond was quick to underline the political reality: ‘With the Glenrothes by-election around the corner, Gordon Brown is caving into pressure from the SNP and the people of Scotland.’
Calman Commission cancels its first public meeting in Scotland
The Calman Commission, proposed by Wendy Alexander and set up by Prime Minister Gordon Brown with the support of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Parties, is charged with examining new powers that might be devolved to the Scottish Government. It was due to hold its first meeting with the Scottish public in Stirling today but yesterday – at very short notice – it suddenly cancelled the event without explanation. The eventual reason given was said to be that a small number of necessary preparations for the event could not be completed in time.
The SNP’s view, with the Scottish Government itself examining greater powers for Scotland through its National Conversation, is that so few people were interested in talking to the Commission’s members that the event had been cancelled from significant lack of interest; and that going ahead would therefore have brought public humiliation. A spokesman for the Calman Commission has refused to comment on this.