The Government's position on devolution contained in the White Paper is very much the product of frightened bureaucrats poring over Scottish election statistics in Transport House. Its proposals only give credibility to the above-mentioned assessment of the Financial Times. The only changes from previous proposals are an increase in representation to 150 members, the election of an Assembly Executive in Scotland, a 'stronger voice' in the British Tourist Authority, and Assembly control over the lower stages of the Scottish legal system.
Universities are left outside its scope. As the Scotsman put it, tongue in cheek: "Though Labour, the Government are not lacking in respect for the Establishment in the law and universities. Or anywhere else for that matter. In fact it is doubtful if even a man of the engrained cynicism of Michael Foot believes that this hastily thrown together package can achieve anything apart from a brief breathing space for the Government.
Two issues in particular lie at the heart of the problem for the Cabinet in FOOT manoeuvring round the issue. First is the question of revenue. The Government has rejected its previous formula of allowing a surcharge on local rates as a source of taxation for the new Assembly. With all expenditure now coming from a block grant from Westminister, the Assembly has no powers of taxation or fund-raising. REVENUE But revenue is at the heart of the nature of the Assembly, and without it the new Assembly will effectively be no more than a large local council. It will not matter what steps the Scottish people decide are necessary in the way of legislation just to begin to tackle some of the worst problems such as multi-national "get rich quick' investment, the decades of deprivation, and the traditionally higher levels unemployment and migration - the White Paper means that no attempt can be made in Scotland to powers of the Assembly is quite an accurate one: but all the same, arguments over this 'local council' have not only managed to raise electoral support for the Scottish National Party (SP) from 2.4 per cent to over 30 per cent in a decade, but today threaten the stability of a Labour Government which has already achieved political successes against the working class which the Tories can only envy. Regardless of anything else about devolution, it cannot now be dismissed as "irrelevant or it is now a political issue at the centre of the crisis of British political life, and socialists will have to understand get hold of the real wealth in the hands of the oil companies or banks for use in the interests of working people.
Royal Dutch-Shell, who have just announced a quarterly profit of £303 million, and who expect a total annual profit in the region of £1,250 million, are thus well protected from any extremist legislation which Scottish workers might demand in order to use that wealth for more socially useful purposes than enriching oil shareholders.
FEUDAL Despite this, the Government has built into the proposals what it calls "constitutional safeguards (which "safeguard" both the constitution and private wealth through a veto system.
Having rejected a veto based on the powers of a colonial governor which would have allowed the Scottish Secretary of State discretion to rule out of order certain legislation, the Government has now opted for a veto power based on a feudal court!
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, elected by no-one and responsible to no-one, can now rule out legislation which it deems would have 'unacceptable repercussions' on nationai government policy. Even the most timid and reformist attempts to challenge the policy of the Government on unemployment, for instance, cuts in social spending - will now be interpreted by their Lordships as having 'unacceptable repercussions.
Nothing is supposed to interfere with the policies of the government of the day. The so-called sovereignty of the great "Mother of Parliaments' Westminster, much beloved by Tribune Group, is as much a road block to the working class now as it was during the disastrous campaign led Labour during anti-EEC referendum. FAILURE With the first landings of oil this year, the contrast between the massive and profits of oil exploitation and its total failure to produce any real benefits for Scottish or English workers is becoming acute.
There are 50,000 workers employed in the industry, often in badly unionised service industries in the North East or labour camps on the West coast, but the platform construction industry has not one order left and can only be expected to shed considerable labour over the next period. The Assembly, however, will be impotent to deal with the oil monopolies, leaving the Government a free hand to use oil revenues as a means of FUNC international bankers.
In the same period the cuts in public spending (schools, roads, hospitals) will only accentuate the chronic unemployment in the construction trade, pushing Scottish unemployment figures still higher than the national average. Again the Assembly will be impotent to adopt the necessary measures: policies such as an emergency programme of public investment, the take-over of plants used by multinational 'cowboy' employers to make quick profits, are all ruled out as illegal under the Government's proposals.
But the Government's attempts to produce a deliberately contrived abortion are meeting increasing difficulty. Some sections of social democracy do not trust even Michael Foot to defend the 'historie integrity' of the United Kingdom adequately.
A new group of mainly English MPs has now been formed as an organised caucus against any form of devolution. This grouping, called Labour against Assemblies in Edinburgh and Cardiff'. is led by Eric, Moonman, MP for Basildon. Starting at the Labour Party conference, it seeks to sabotage any recognition of the demands of the Scottish and Welsh workers for some form of elected Assembly.
The initiative for this much heralded *backlash' comes of course itself, where frightened Labour MPs are increasingly aware of the large scale working class indifference to their electoral fate. Lacking the politics (and often the personal courage) to attack the disastrous policies of the Government, they become instead the most vociferous defenders of the Government's record and the present status quo between Westminster and the regions. The reactionary Scottish National Party will not be rushing to haul down the flag of foreign capital in Scotlanc This attack on devolution has now been joined by the building workers' union, UCATT, in the shape of an between Eric Heffer and George Smith-general secretary the union and one most right-wing bureaucrats in the business.
In an article in the Scotsman on 5 August, Smith blamed lack of support GEORGE SMITH of UCATT for the record of the Government among Scottish workers on the 'disruptive tactics of the Communist Party-meaning the timid fight that the General Council of the Scottish TUC has put up for an elected Assembly.
This absurd view of the Scottish political situation-which means screaming abuse at the tail because of an absence of anything to say to the dog-is coupled with the most incredible arrogance, almost calculated to drive workers into the arms of the petty bourgeois nationalists. 'I make at least one pilgrimage to Scotland in the year', claims Mr Smith and adds modestly: I have just spent a fortnight's holiday in a caravan Arbroath. still very much love Scotland. I claim entitlement to speak for Scotsmen.' RED FLAG It is this type of attitude, even if it is dressed up with strains of the Internationale or the Red Flag, which cuts across the democratic right of the Scottish workers to choose their own form of government. Quite emphatically, Scottish workers do not accept claims of George Smith (or Michael Foot for that matter) to speak for them. They have a right, which the British labour movement has wholeheartedly support, to speak for Any attempt to sabotage that demo cratic right, by rejecting even the most modest and opportunist proposals made by the Government to set up an elected Assembly, will be disastrous for the unity of the British working class. The present trickle of confidence away from the labour movement as a vehicle for solving the problems of Scottish people will be turned into a veritable flood, throwing workers in Scotland into the camp of the re actionary bourgeois SNP
10 Namibia/Peru, Red Weekly 26 August 1976 Government-paid puppet chiefs and their bodyguards, and Governmen installations at Oshikango, where a
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a 'diversion'. For better or worse, and act on it.
'NOT SO MUCH an Assembly, more a local council' was how the Financial Times greeted the Govern- ment's White Paper on devolution, published at the beginning of this month. That judgement on the