Meeting of the Parliament 10 December 2014
If we use the Scotland Act 2012 as our template for constitutional change, we will have a single legislative instrument—a single act—that transfers powers at different times.
I am pleased with the way that the pro-union parties have delivered. In September, I, Willie Rennie and Johann Lamont jointly supported a timetable for reform. On the morning of 19 September, the Prime Minister announced that Lord Smith of Kelvin would chair the negotiations for an all-party deal to crack on. In October, the command paper was published well ahead of schedule. In November, the Smith commission produced its report as promised. That is a record of delivery and commitments honoured, and it contrasts with the way in which the Scottish National Party has behaved.
On 20 September, as the process was already under way and as the SNP was being included in it, Alex Salmond claimed that we were reneging on commitments and accused us of shameless behaviour. We then had an untypically graceless performance from the Deputy First Minister at the launch of the report that he had signed only the night before. The new First Minister tweeted lines that she did not like and stood in the chamber to decry it as disappointing. Then we had the pathetic spectacle of three elected SNP councillors setting fire to the document outside their council chambers.
They signed it on Wednesday, whined about it on Thursday and burned it on Tuesday. Those are not the actions of a party that was dealing in good faith.
I know the SNP lines on that. It says that the vow was not honoured and insists that, somehow, the people of Scotland were let down, when what it really means is that the Smith recommendations are not full independence. It is the SNP and the SNP alone that feels aggrieved.
I say again that the people of Scotland specifically rejected independence. They want devolution to work. We are making that happen.