Scotland was promised “close to Federalism” or Home Rule during the referendum. Did that mean Devomax?

During most debates on the powers of the Scottish Parliament, the Vow or the Smith Commission many like to note that Gordon Brown promised Scotland Federalism or Home Rule. This is usually then followed up with a statement that this means DevoMax.

They do this as if it was a rabbit out of a hat, a killer argument that instantly wins them the debate. Unfortunately it just demonstrates their chronic lack of attention to detail.

For a detailed analysis of the Vow and the nationalists lack of detail on this subject I'd  strongly recommend Fraser Whyte's excellent shredding of their Vow narrative.

https://whytepaper.wordpress.com/2015/09/19/one-year-on-and-some-crap-about-the-vow/

Firstly it’s easy enough to establish what Brown did say in the final days of the campaign. Brown promised “a modern form of Scottish Home Rule” and 

We’re going to be, within a year or two, as close to a federal state as you can be in a country where one nation is 85 per cent of the population.

There is no disputing what Brown said and in both cases it was a valid statement and prediction of what would follow.

Before moving any further we need to understand the terms DevoMax, Full Financial Responsibility or Full Fiscal Autonomy?

We have the nat definition in Stewart Hosie’s  own words when he deemed himself capable of talking for everyone in Scotland:

"The Scottish people are quite clear that devo-max means devolving every power except defence and foreign affairs to Scotland."

This is in line with the Scottish Government's detailed paper on the subject in 2011. So DevoMax means effective control of everything other than foreign affairs and defence. As an aside this is a rather strange position because the Yes movement recognised this wasn't even possible under independence through their CU proposals which placed restrictions on the Scottish Government's fiscal policy and borrowing levels.

So what of Home Rule? This has a wide variety of possible meanings but in legislative terms it was was defined in the Irish Home Rule Bills, specifically in the Government of Ireland Act 1914. This Act gave devolved self government to Ireland but reserved aspects to the “Imperial Parliament” such as:

• Pensions, national insurance “labour exchange”
• The collection of taxes
• Financial services (Post Office, TSB, Friendly Societies)
• Debt made before the passing of the Act

This should seem familiar, especially when you consider the taxes and public spending levels that existed in 1914, so a “modern form of Home Rule” would look similar in reserving certain taxes to Westminster whilst devolving others to Edinburgh.

This is certainly what the Scotland Bill 2015 provides for. It is however clear that by reserving powers, and maintaining pooling and sharing to the Imperial Parliament, Home Rule cannot be DevoMax.

Turning to Federalism? Was this DevoMax?

Rather embarrassingly for the nationalists the Scottish Parliament published a comprehensive comparison of different federal systems locating the Smith Commission proposals on a spectrum of the strength of local parliaments in federal or devolved systems.

This showed that Scotland under the Smith Proposals would be one of the strongest local Parlaiments alongside that of federal Switzerland and considerable more powerful than that of devolved Spain or federal Germany. Therefore again Brown’s statement was fair and reasonable at the time and has been borne out by the facts that followed.

Federalism clearly does not mean DevoMax, no where in the study does any local Parliament come close to the nationalist definition of DevoMax.

The trouble for the nationalists is that they are contradicting themselves. Before the referendum result they sang a very different tune on the promises made by the Better Together campaign.

The day before the referendum for instance Nicola Sturgoen issued a press release where she argued that the the Vow did not guarantee a “single power”. This is clearly at odds with the “maximum devolution” rhetoric of her Deputy Leader after the referendum.

On BBC TV the day before the referendum Sturgeon stated openly that “we don’t know what they’re pledging” in respect of further powers. On the night/morning of the referendum (5:22am) itself Sturgeon reiterated the lack of clarity on future powers and, telling said, that she thought that “full devolution of income tax” would need to be delivered  - something that Smith delivers. But again this is not DevoMax.

As “close to federalism” and “modern home rule” were promised and they are being delivered by the Smith Commission and the Scotland Bill. DevoMax or maximum devolution is a very different concept and unworkable within a currency union as the Fiscal Commission Working Group noted themselves.

The nationalists knew this before the referendum but in their desperation they are now trying to rewrite the past hoping to airbrush their own statements out of history.