Towering beast of referendum looms large over dull bills

Chief Scottish Political Correspondent

Wednesday 5 September 2012

BUSY but somehow overshadowed – that was the first impression of the tranche of 15 bills unveiled by Alex Salmond.

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ROBBIE DINWOODIE CHIEF SCOTTISH POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Some are inevitable, like a Budget Bill and the enabling bill for running the new Forth Crossing, which is to be contracted out to a private firm, something that would have fuelled anger at one time.

Some were knock-ons from the Scotland Act, dull stuff about landfill tax and stamp duty, or duller still such as bankruptcy reform or the legislation with the name beyond parody even by The Thick of It – the Better Regulation Bill.Others are more exciting or relevant to real lives, such as same-sex marriage and guaranteeing more nursery and childcare hours, while others flow from consultations in areas such as law reform.But all were overshadowed by the big beast sitting at the other end of the settee – the Referendum Bill. When the First Minister confirmed this at the top of his list of proposals, we might have expected an explosion of cheering from the SNP benches causing one of the chamber's roof beams to come loose, but the response was actually fairly restrained.Were they taking their cue from the First Minister himself, who was obviously in statesman mode? Were they under orders to keep a lid on triumphalism? Or are there only so many times anyone can get excited about a repeat announcement?Mr Salmond framed most bills by way of contrast with the failings at Westminster. Here was the Scottish Parliament working well, he suggested, but imagine what more could be done with control of all the economic levers. He claimed no recession had ever been overcome without capital investment, which had been massively cut by the Westminster Coalition.He spoke of parents and children he had met yesterday, providing a photographic backdrop to his £18m childcare pledge, and talked of these youngsters growing up "in a fair and prosperous society" which could be achieved only with full control over the economy and welfare policy.His bill reforming public procurement so that this huge area of Government spending produces tangible benefits in local communities is clearly a response to the controversy over foreign suppliers winning the contracts to supply the steel for the new Forth Crossing, and Johann Lamont did not miss the chance to point this out, calling it "too little, too late".She was on decent form – you could tell because Nationalist backbenchers were rising to her bait – deriding slogans and soundbites that did nothing for jobs, a "Government bereft of policy". A bit like a pledge "to do less, better", as one of her predecessors famously put it.The problem for Labour is that for them, there was very little for them really to take issue with in this programme, nor for Nationalists greatly to warm to. It was an occasion that promised to be a fresh page in history but turned out to be distinctly managerial.Reforming bankruptcy law or legislating for landfill tax does not send the pulse racing, but perhaps the thinking is that we need all our energies for the bigger debate to come about Scotland's future as a nation.

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Towering beast of referendum looms large over dull bills

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