FUTURE dealings between the UK and Scottish Governments should be "reset" to produce a post-referendum relationship based on co-operation and not grievance, Alistair Carmichael, the Scottish Secretary, has insisted following a meeting of the two leaderships in Downing Street.
The annual meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee in No 10, chaired by David Cameron and attended by UK Ministers and those from the three devolved administrations, focused on counter-terrorism, the economy and constitutional matters and was followed by the first 30-minute bilateral between the Prime Minister and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Mr Carmichael suggested an example of the resetting of relations was the PM's decision, taken "in good faith", to fast-track the recommendation in the Smith Commission that 16 and 17-year-olds in Scotland should be able to vote in the 2016 Holyrood elections. Mr Cameron has promised to do "all he can" to enable this to happen through a so-called Section 30 Order; a Westminster parliamentary device used to enable the independence referendum to take place.
Ms Sturgeon, following her meeting with the PM, said she was "very confident" this would now happen in the New Year, providing enough time for the Scottish Parliament to bring forward a Bill to extend the franchise for May 2016.
She emerged from her bilateral, saying: "David Cameron and I are worlds apart in terms of political philosophy and outlook and our views on the constitution in Scotland but, yes, we can do business, where we find common ground."
There was an agreement to establish a joint ministerial working group involving UK and Scottish Government Ministers to look at the practical implementation and transitional issues around welfare and work programmes.
"The PM made clear that he wants to work with the First Minister, forging even stronger ties between our governments and our parliaments and working together on the big issues for the future of Scotland and the United Kingdom," said a Downing Street spokesman.
Mr Carmichael stressed: "It takes two to reset a relationship," noting how time would tell if Ms Sturgeon would be more constructive and co-operative to work with than her predecessor Alex Salmond.
"Where you have areas of interface between the two governments, these are seen as opportunities to make the system of two governments work rather than as the generation of grievance and the creation of difference and division," he added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article