Devolution and the Union

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

I find myself feeling a bit like the right hon. Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Frank Dobson) who was asked if he was in favour of women bishops. He said, “I’m all for women, but not for bishops.” I am all for devolution, but I am not particularly for the Union. I say that as an Irish nationalist sitting here in this House.

However, we must recognise that some issues that have been debated here—there have been some fantastic contributions today—are not just for Scotland or within Scotland. The three GB party leaders rushed to Scotland, like three men in a boat, and all agreed that they all really meant the pledge that they made, but they now cannot agree what it meant. We are left with the question: how now Brown vow? We know that there is a timetable and that there will be clauses of a Bill, but the Bill will not go through until the next Parliament. This does not affect only the people of Scotland, because the Scottish referendum transfixed people well beyond Scotland. It seized the imagination and the interests of democrats everywhere.

Politics falls into disrepute if, as a result of this, we are left with a complete scramble and a mish mash. As we saw with the House of Lords reform, everyone says that they are all for the reform, but they are all able to table different versions of it, and then we have a penalty shoot-out in which nobody scores. That is probably what would have happened today if the Speaker had accepted all the amendments that were tabled. Everybody would have been able to blame everybody else, but the democratic public would have been left no wiser and a lot more frustrated. That is the situation that we need to avoid.

On the work that has to go forward from the Smith commission, a new charter for representative democracy is needed that makes clear the responsibilities, roles, rights and relationships between different Parliaments and whatever institutions in England receive the complementary devolved capacities, or downloadable power options, whether the metro cities, the councils or whatever. The citizen will want to know that those of us in elective politics are clear about the responsibilities, roles, rights, relationships and rules as between those different tiers. They will also want to know that there will be a shared responsiveness to deal with new issues and problems whose shape, definition and implications will change in different sectors and elected chambers. I know this is a bit like “Sesame Street”, with today’s letter being R, but we must also deal with resources and revenue, whether they go through the Barnett formula or any other route that the people want to use.

As a former Finance Minister in Northern Ireland, I am conscious, when I hear people such as the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown) say that the Barnett formula is there to stay, that the Barnett formula means exactly what the Treasury decides. The Treasury decides what it counts into the formula and what counts out of it. I have the bruises from the arguments involved in trying to understand what was what. Basically, the answer was, “We’re the Treasury. We don’t need a reason and we certainly do not need to listen to yours.” The Barnett formula does not give such assurances.

As a member of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, I also hear the argument coming strongly from England about the capacities that people want to be devolved. In my own constituency, people would love to see city deal status even within our devolved settlement for the city of Derry. We need to look at this in a more fluid way and to get away from the politics and find the democracy.