Wednesday, January 5, 2022

A second memo to Chris Hanlon: "recalling" two parliaments that haven't existed since the early 18th Century is not a "relatively simple matter"

Chris Hanlon left a comment on my previous post about his support for a multi-option referendum featuring a Devo Max option.  I initially thought it was a spoof comment because it contained the line "DevoMinMax is the minimum devolution I can consent to", but I see from Mr Hanlon's opinion piece in The National that he does actually use the word "DevoMinMax", so it may well have genuinely been him.

In case you're wondering what the definition of "DevoMinMax" is, it would apparently consist of only three changes to the current set-up.  The Scottish Parliament would be made permanent, with Westminster stripped of the power to unilaterally abolish it.  The Sewel Convention would be enforced by statute, ensuring that Westminster can no longer legislate on devolved matters without Holyrood's express consent.  And the Scottish Parliament would unambiguously gain the power to hold an independence referendum at any time without requiring permission.

It's doubtful whether this is actually describing a system of devolution at all, because a parliament that can no longer be abolished or overruled has effectively become sovereign.  However, that's a point of pedantry, and in principle it would be perfectly possible to legally entrench Holyrood's existence in the way Mr Hanlon suggests - although that would involve restructuring the entire principle of unlimited Westminster parliamentary sovereignty.  But what does raise an eyebrow or two is Mr Hanlon's suggestion of how that restructuring would occur.

"That would probably involve amending the Acts of Union but that would be a relatively simple matter of recalling the Scottish and English parliaments solely to approve the pre-agreed changes."

Er, what English parliament? There isn't one.  There hasn't been one since April 1707.  So what Mr Hanlon appears to be suggesting is the recall of the English and Scottish Parliaments that existed prior to the Acts of Union more than three centuries ago.  Such an undertaking could be described in many ways, but I'm not convinced that a "relatively simple matter" is one of them.  There is no legal provision for recalling parliaments that no longer exist. Even if there were such a provision, all of the members of both parliaments are, not to put too fine a point on it, long since dead, and there is no viable way of replacing them with a new membership in line with the pre-democratic laws of the early 18th century.

Let's be frank: Mr Hanlon is not presenting us with a remotely serious proposition.

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15 comments:

  1. You have to ask why the SNP are discussing all sorts of scenarios for DevoMinMaxMidiNanoUltraSuper that clearly will never happen, rather than discussing feasible options for actually gaining independence.

    Oh look! There's a squirrel!!

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  2. "Let's be frank: Mr Hanlon is not presenting us with a remotely serious proposition."

    Let's also be frank that the SNP are not remotely interested in achieving Scottish independence.

    Don't be a numpty - Vote Alba for Scottish independence.

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  3. It seems to have been a perfect platform for the Sturgeonista's to blame Alba as Chris was part of the commonweal movement. (What that has to do with Alba i'm not sure). Some of the posts were ridiculous. The othering of Alba in the comments on the National seems to be gaining pace. Is there another mandate producing election soon or something?

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  4. Hanlon is peddling pish. Deliberately muddying the waters. Sturgeon would be proud of him.

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  5. Devo Max is another name for the federalism fairy, who died in the morning of 19 September 2014 when Dodgy Dave Cameron stood on the steps of 10 Downing Street, announced EVEL, and essentially said to us Scots "Ha ha, fooled you!".

    Nothing that contains the word "devolution" will do, because the years since 2014 have shown us beyond a shadow of a doubt that Westminster regimes, particularly those of the fascistic, corrupt and dishonest Johnsonian type, cannot be trusted to deliver. Rather, the only thing they can be trusted to deliver is nothing positive.

    Powers devolved are powers retained. Devo Max is a dead horse. It's an exercise in futility to try to flog it to the Scottish electorate.Time to give it a decent burial.

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  6. I fear we are being softened up for a future attempt to delete section 2a of the SNP constitution as a sort of Sturgeonite clause 4 moment.

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  7. UK opinion poling for Dec 2021

    http://thepeoplesflag.blogspot.com/2022/01/this-will-now-be-monthly.html

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  8. It is worth remembering that Murray Foote, the ex Daily Record architect of the Infamous Vow that Jackie Bird and others said promised Devo max back in 2014 is now employed by the SNP. I'm sure he feels at home with all the other devolutionalists (unionists) in the SNP.

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  9. In Craig Murray's article of 15/12/2021 entitled Nicola Sturgeon's Motivation there is this:

    " It also ties in with my own Tory sources, who tell me that through chief of staff channels, Sturgeon has suggested to Johnston he might agree a three question referendum after the Holyrood election, with a form of " Devo Max" as a middle option that would be sure to win."

    Is Hanlon testing the water on behalf of Sturgeon's gang?

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  10. Johnston didn't break the Ministerial Code just like Sturgeon didn't break the Ministerial Code - aye right.

    Johnston couldn't recall a couple of Whatsapp messages re his fiat. Sturgeon couldn't recall many many things ( some say more than 50 ) re the persecution of Salmond.

    A PM and an FM with no integrity.

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  11. Not long now to another election in May and the SNP are starting to get the fresh carrots out for the numpties like mad liar Skier who now claims more often that he is an Irish Skier than a Scottish Skier. The new carrot wholesale distributor is the guy who didn't know how the Council Elections STV system works. Fills you full of confidence that this lot will deliver independence. WGD numpty Golfnut is going for the carrots as he believes Sturgeon will soon step up the pressure on the union.

    The king of the snidey one liner Lomax remarkably manages a few more sentences in a post where he said he hated school and hoped it would burn down. At least he learned how to read and write but being a numpty probably very little else.

    WGD a site run by a phoney for a bunch of carrot chasing numpties.

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  12. Unpublished comment from Douglas Clark: The answer to the question "what happened to our debate?" is very simple - you decided against it. Now kindly stop wasting my time. Thank you.

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  13. THE BRASSNECK OF THE BRITNATS

    On BBC Reporting Scotland they casually report that the British Labour Shadow Chancellor Reeves has called for a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers to raise £6.6billion. This would be the North Sea that they said in 2014 would be finished In 5 years time and was worthless when the oil price fell.

    This report was delivered with no sense of embarrassment. What a Britnat brassneck.

    Better Together = Scotland getting ripped off by England.

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  14. The Scottish (Irish) Skier comes clean?

    The mad liar Skier says on WGD:

    " I am inherently a Unionist,"

    " I do believe that working together benefits all."

    " I would be more than happy for Scotland to be in union with England..."

    He even goes on to say the SNP and Greens are unionists.

    Perhaps Skier should have taken my advice and called them Britnats or people may quote him out of context.😂😂😂

    In other comments from the land of the doggers and the home of the numpties senile Jack Collatin disnae seem to know we left the EU some time ago as he says: " We voted to remain in the European Union. Remain we shall. " Not even Blackford is saying that nowadays.

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    Replies
    1. "I am inherently a Unionist"

      In view of his antics last year, that will be a surprise to no-one.

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