A future Council of the Isles ...
Monday, March 17, 2008
Last month I was in Dublin for the British-Irish Council (BIC) - a body that brings together the two sovereign governments, three devolved administrations and three Island territories that form the British Isles.
The Council is an important forum for cross-border partnership and ensures that the nations of these Isles work together closely on a range of issues including drugs, energy transmission and climate change. These are issues where the best solutions require both determined action at a national level and partnership beyond our boundaries. 
It is through the Council that many of the important social links that exist between the nations of these islands are maintained and indeed strengthened.
There are as many people of Irish descent as Scottish descent living in England, there are equally strong ties of family, economy and history. That is not an argument for Ireland becoming part of the UK once again; it is an argument for the sort of partnership that exists within the British-Irish Council.
I believe that what works today for independent Ireland will also work in the future for independent Scotland. I see a future Council of the Isles that becomes a body where three sovereign governments, two devolved administrations and three island territories work together.
Scotland would have a full and equal voice, we would have an appropriate forum to take forward and strengthen the social links that are so important to all the nations of these isles and we would have the ability to work together when needed and when agreed.
The British-Irish Council of today - and a future Council of the Isles, modelled on the extremely effective partnership of the Nordic Council between the independent nations of Scandinavia - is an example of the sort of modern, 21st century relationship that should exist between Scotland and the rest of the UK.
We will be friends and partners, neighbours who work closely together when we need to, while each having the ability to take forward our own priorities and develop the policies that meet the needs of our citizens and allow us to build our own nation's success.
Through a future Council of the Isles, and indeed through our membership of the EU, I can certainly see co-operation on security and climate change between Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the wider world. And at the same time Scotland would be free to decide, if we so choose, to create a more competitive taxation environment to stimulate economic growth, to invest our natural resources for the future and to increase the level of pension we pay older Scots.
Instead of these decisions being taken elsewhere as happens today, taking responsibility for these decisions in Scotland would allow us do more and do it better - to fine tune policy for specific Scottish needs.
Independence means co-operation with our nearest neighbours and the ability to take all the decisions needed to build national success - that is the lesson of Ireland. The British-Irish Council is proof that a more appropriate, more modern relationship of equals between the nations of these Islands is possible. Independence and partnership - it's a relationship that works.
This blog is now closed to further comment.