Meeting of the Parliament 16 September 2015
As ever, that was an adroit and gallant attempt by the cabinet secretary to exculpate himself.
In fairness to Mr Swinney, I say that I of course understand that, from the Scottish National Party’s perspective, the Smith agreement does not bring forward proposals for independence for Scotland, but that was never the job of the Smith commission. The referendum endorsed enhanced devolution and rejected independence. That is why I lodged the amendment in my name. I wanted to put into context the referendum result, the Smith agreement, the draft clauses and the Scotland Bill.
The Scotland Bill is an extremely important piece of legislation and it is entirely right that it be scrutinised at Westminster and by a committee of this Parliament. In response to the initial attack from Mr Swinney and his SNP colleagues that the bill reflects some faint-hearted, peelie-wally attempt to deliver a minimal extension of powers, let me remind members that the Scottish Parliament information centre has produced a fascinating analysis of the Smith agreement proposals. The Scottish Parliament will have more tax and spending powers than the majority of states in federal countries such as Australia, Germany and the United States, and in a league of sub-national legislatures across the world, Scotland will be near the top.
I appreciate that the SNP wanted to devolve responsibility for a range of issues, including employment law, national insurance contributions and the minimum wage, but a range of bodies from very different perspectives, such as the Confederation of British Industry, the STUC and the TUC had profound concerns, so those matters did not form part of the Smith agreement or the Scotland Bill.