Och, devolve already!

Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister, wants to hold a referendum on devolution. David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, isn't so keen on the idea. And 60% of Scots aren't, either. So Mr Salmond has come up with two ideas and a strategy. The ideas are lame and the strategy is jingoist. :-)

The first idea is to put two questions on the ballot: devolution or divorce. Mr Cameron favors only one question: divorce or not. Mr Salmond's other idea is to lower the voting age to 16. Because, well, 16 to 18 year olds are such rational actors. And they might plump for what Mr Salmond actually wants: autonomy, but remaining part of the UK. The strategy? He produced his white paper on the event on Robert Burns'  birthday and he wants to hold the referendum in the same week as the Battle of Bannockburn. (In case you're not up on your Scottish history: the Scots won that one.)

There's a lot of good reasons for staying within the UK; mostly they're related to things like "getting lots of money from Westminster".  And jobs - the Royal Navy might [have to] pull out of its Scottish harbors if Scotland is a totally separate nation. (Dang! There's that whole "reality" thing standing in the way of idealistic mumbo-jumbo!) Of course, there's the very simple idea of a British passport. 

A divorce would be messy; there's the whole EU thing to figure out. Taxes would have to be set and collected; oil revenues would have to be apportioned, diplomatic stuff would need figuring out and on and on and on. The most important would be that "lots of money from Westminster" thing. Which is (really) why Mr Salmond wants "devolution max", and not a full split - it would be very difficult to persuade the English voter that they should continue funding a lot, any, of programs north of the border. Mr Salmond is probably trying to be pragmatic, without appearing to be just that.

Personally, I have no opinion on the matter. (There's a first!) What I think is: the timing of all this is stupid, the showboating ridiculous and the timelines being offered unrealistic and probably insulting. If you want to devolve the union, go ahead. If you don't - don't. I agree with david Cameron - it should be a straight up question. Any other option is silly; you can always negotiate more power, but going for "separation lite"? That's trying to have your cake and eat it too. 

Which is what the scrappy Mr Salmond really wants. After all - Scotland's first First Minister probably doesn't want to go down in history as the man who bankrupted the nation because he needed to win a pissing contest.

Carolyn Ann