TOWARDS SCOTLAND'S PARLIAMENT (Scottish Constitutional Convention, #2.50) The Scottish establishment has become infatuated with constitutionalism (as noted in H&N9). This passion was declared in the 1988 Claim of Right for Scotland and in the Constitutional Convention then being concocted by the churches, the established "opposition" parties and those aspiring to be established parties. The Convention crawled along, driven and restrained by the cautious consensus of those who hoped there might be something in it for them. On November 30th 1990 (St. Andrew's Day), they convened again, to present their conclusions under the title Towards Scotland's Parliament. In his commentary, Canon Kenyon Wright announces that the Convention "will give new hope to Scotland, and to many far beyond, of a new form of democracy, which is fully participative and not just representative". But a search of the document for such ideas turns up nothing. Nothing - but a few platitudes about a possible electoral system. These can be listed briefly: "that it produces results in which the number of seats for various parties is broadly related to the numbers of votes cast for them; ...that it ensures, or at least takes effective positive action to bring about, equal representation of men and women, and encourages fair representation of ethnic and other minority groups; ...that it preserves a link between the member and his/her constituency; ...that the system is designed to place the greatest possible power in the hands of the electorate." (Ah yes, the electorate - almost forgot them!) Months of discussion led to that ragbag of insubstantial house rules for the political class. "Participatory democracy" appears to be just the establishment all getting their snouts in the trough. Having retreated from organising the intended referendum on their proposals, which might have demolished their representative credentials, the Convention has tried to get back onto the road with the St. Andrews Day coup. The credulity of the believers is again evident. Professors (Bernard Crick in New Statesman & Society, 7/12/90), exhibit a partisan will-to-believe which they would fail in a student essay, and proclaim the Claim of Right to be "truly on a level with the great pamphlets of the American and French revolutions". But this pronouncement, despite its insistence on truth, is sustained by nothing but electoral speculation: Will the SNP gain at Labour's expense or vice versa? Will SNP pressure force a Labour government to implement its promises? A few Convention supporters are more astute about the social forces involved. In an article situating disputes within the Scottish Conservative Party hierarchy in a deeper context, Neal Ascherson indicated the role of corporatism in structuring Scottish society: a "densely-woven mat of patronage and clientship whose threads almost all lead directly or indirectly back to the State". (Independant on Sunday, 16/9/90) However, the patron-client relation would survive a passage from the older Conservative-dominated corporatism (which Ascherson dislikes) to a modern Keynesian nationalism, whose prospects apparently continue to excite him. At root, the conventional constitutionalists are a profoundly conservative force, whose common interests demand patron-client relations of various kinds. Their complaint (again summarised by Canon Wright) is against a "contemporary reality of increasingly centralised authority, with its erosion of all alternative bases of community power, and of the traditional institutions which have been the foundations of Scottish identity and values". So these traditional institutions are looking for their nameplate on the pew, their place in the sun. The 1978 Scotland Act plus a little money? That'll do nicely. So insubstantial is their participatory democracy that it may even be outflanked by Conservative politicians counter-proposing an advisory national Senate to replace the regional tier of local government. Alex Richards 650w [Document ends] From Here & Now 11 1991 - No copyright