Bruce Crawford, Minister for Parliamentary Business
Friday, November 30, 2007
The online conversation is undoubtedly off to a flying start.
The 1,000th comment in the National Conversation Blog was posted at 7.26am on Saturday morning. And the conversation continues to grow and expand in new places with the First Minister speaking to a packed out audience at Edinburgh's International Book Festival, radio phone ins and newspaper letters pages fill up with the views of the nation.
It seems that articulating debate on our constitutional future is hugely popular with a poll in a Sunday newspaper this weekend showing that 74 per cent of Scots are in favour of a referendum with the majority believing that Scotland becoming Independent in inevitable.
The Scottish Government envisages a national conversation which will consider the entire range of possible improvements to the current constitutional settlement for Scotland. What is clear is that the status quo is no longer an option and the question now is how much more Independence and responsibility the people of Scotland want to help improve and progress our country? For instance, I want Scotland to have the Independence to decide whether the Trident Nuclear Weapons System should continue to be based on the Clyde.
At the election a few months back all the main political parties made proposals concerning the devolution settlement.
In addition to proposing a white paper on independence which we have now published, the Scottish National Party made specific proposals to extend the devolution settlement in areas such as the civil service, broadcasting and for firearms.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats proposed a new constitutional convention to examine the best way to devolve new responsibilities, including taxation, to Holyrood. They also proposed that competence over the electoral system, energy, transport and marine policy should be devolved.
The Scottish Labour party emphasised the continued use of the mechanisms in the Scotland Act to make any necessary changes. The Scottish Conservatives declared themselves open to a debate about the powers of the Scottish Parliament to secure accountability for raising revenues, as well as for spending.
Since we launched the national conversation many politicians have joined the debate, with some rethinking their position and saying they welcome a fresh look at Scotland's partnership with other parts of the UK. Certainly times change and minds change, and what is important is that Scotland's government encourages the debate and enables political parties, groups and individuals who have a view of the future direction our nation to play a full part in the conversation.
At the end of the day whether the people of Scotland choose full self government as the way forward or seek to obtain new devolved powers for the Scottish Parliament no significant change should be allowed to happen without the consent of the people, that is why we so strongly back the idea of a referendum. We trust the people of Scotland to make the right decisions and ask other parties to do the same.
Before the election we said to Scotland that it was now time to move forward. As we approach our first 100 days of an SNP Government we have done just that by getting on with the job of delivering the SNP programme and fulfilling our commitment to ensure that a full and proper debate setting out how we can choose a new and better relationship with the other nations of these islands takes place. I look forward to the conversation flowing!
This blog is now closed to further comments.