The week in Scotland has been dominated by the decisive vote in Holyrood to reject the UK government’s EU Withdrawal Bill. As predicted, in the end Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens all lined up behind the SNP government, meaning that the vote to reject the Bill was won by 93 votes to 30.
On the face of it, at issue is Clause 11 of the Bill which deals with the repatriation of various powers to the UK after Brexit and how these will be devolved through to Scotland (and Wales). The Scottish government has long accused its UK counterparts of a ‘power grab’ with 24 of the repatriated powers not coming immediately back to Scotland.
And while some opposition parties backed the First Minister, the Scottish Tories suspected that Ms Sturgeon’s motive was less about the protection of the devolution settlement, and more about stoking the flames of grievance in an attempt to gain support for independence. They point to the fact that the Welsh government has reached a deal with the UK government over devolving former EU powers, contrasting Labour’s differing positions in the two countries and accusing Scottish Labour of ‘doing the SNP’s bidding.’
So, what next? The EU Withdrawal Bill is due before the House of Commons for a final vote in the next few weeks, so time for the two governments to reach a deal is in short supply. The First Minister is challenging the Prime Minister to take the unprecedented (though legal) step of ignoring the views of Holyrood. But there are risks for the First Minister as well, not least that there is no sign yet of voters’ views towards independence changing. This may of course change, although polling in the issue shows that little has changed since the first referendum in 2014; what is more likely is that voters are not motivated to change their minds as a result of wrangling over powers in which they have very little knowledge or interest.
First Minister not sold on prisoner voting rights
During one of the most wide-ranging and interesting recent sessions of First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, the issue of voting rights for prisoners was raised with the FM invited to give her view on the subject.
This follows a report from Holyrood’s Equality and Human Rights committee earlier in the week which called rights to vote should be extended to ‘all prisoners’. Perhaps aware of public opinion on the issue, the FM was significantly more cautious, arguing that ‘I am certainly not persuaded of enfranchising prisoners who are in prison for the most serious and heinous crimes.’ A detailed Scottish Government response to the committee report will be issued in due course.
Star gazing
Finally, some lucky schoolchildren had an exciting day when astronaut Tim Peake landed at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. As well as telling the children all the stories form his six months orbiting the earth, visitors were able to view his spacesuit and don virtual reality headsets to view a 360 degree, 3D experience called Space Descent VR. More out of this world views from Scotland next week.