Meeting of the Parliament 19 December 2019
That is right. There is a degree of flexibility about that. However, it does not address the critical question, which, as Michael Russell said in his opening remarks, is the one that has bedevilled British politics for the best part of three years: what is the relationship between something that is decided in a referendum and a Parliament that is tasked with the responsibility of delivering on that result?
The bill is less bad than it was when it was introduced. There is no longer a power in the bill for Mr Russell merely to click his fingers and for there to be, as if by magic, a referendum by ministerial order—as there was when he introduced the bill. The Electoral Commission’s role in the testing of referendum questions, while significantly reduced, in a manner that cannot be forgiven—and certainly will not be forgotten—has not been quite as obliterated as Mr Russell might have wanted.
However, this afternoon we have missed opportunities to improve the bill by revising the purdah rules and by implementing the Gould principle in statute in Scotland for the first time.
It does not matter what the bill says, because the Scottish National Party knows, as we all know, that the bill would be used by the SNP only for a second independence referendum, and—thanks to the SNP—there is not going to be a second independence referendum. We had a general election last week, and the result was that we have the first Conservative majority Government in the United Kingdom since 1992. So, thank you to the SNP for ensuring that we had that election, and thank you to the SNP for ensuring that we have a Conservative majority Government. We will note that the Queen’s speech—