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SNP MSP Winnie Ewing opened the Scottish Parliament in 1999.
The King and Queen are in Holyrood this weekend to attend celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament’s ‘reconvening’.
That’s how the official news release describes their visit. “Reconvening” was the word MSP Winnie Ewing chose to open the devolved parliaments for business in 1999.
As a nationalist politician, Mrs Ewing may have enjoyed a sense of historical continuity with the 18th century parliament of independent Scotland.
Her choice of words raised a few eyebrows at the time, as the new parliament bears little resemblance to the old one. Continuity is mostly a myth.
First, Holyrood is a democratically elected parliament, not an assembly of aristocrats or landed gentry.
Second, it represented an experiment in power-sharing within England, rather than a break from the political union with England in 1707.
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Queen Elizabeth attended the opening of Parliament in July 1999.
One of the key aims of Labor, which had achieved devolution and had more decisions about Scotland made in Scotland, was to quell nationalist demands for full independence.
George Robertson, Labour’s shadow Scottish secretary before the 1997 general election, predicted that devolution would “kill the SNP a stone’s throw”.
By contrast, fellow Labor MP Tam Dalyel, who opposed devolution, warned that it would become a “highway with no exits to other states”.
It’s still possible that one or the other is justified, but so far both are beside the point.
Ten years ago this month, Scottish voters rejected proposals for independence in a referendum.
Of course, that referendum was only possible because the main independent party, the SNP, won a majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament a few years ago.
Voting systems are specifically designed to prevent that from happening. Elements of proportional representation were thought to require minority parties to cooperate and share power.
That’s what happened during the first eight years that Labor and the Liberal Democrats ran a coalition government.
Far from crushing the SNP, Mr Holyrood gave the party the platform to rise from protest to power.
Over the past 17 years, the SNP has become the dominant force in Scottish politics, continuing to push constitutional politics to the fore.
This has led to dissatisfaction among opponents. They want more focus on the delivery and reform of decentralized public services such as the NHS and schools.
The failure of the SNP’s pursuit of independence has left Holyrood with new responsibilities.
Congress became more powerful, had almost complete control over income taxes, and a unique welfare system began.
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Smoking in public places was banned in 2006
That’s not to say it didn’t have a big impact. Consider the life-and-death decisions Holyrood ministers are making every day during the coronavirus pandemic.
Parliament has passed 370 bills to date, including landmark legislation to ban smoking in enclosed public places, introduce minimum unit prices for alcohol and legalize same-sex marriage. Included.
Decentralization is characterized by successive governments expanding the provision of free or subsidized entitlements.
These include free personal care for seniors, free prescriptions, and free college tuition.
As budget pressures increase, there is a sense that these provisions cannot be expanded any further and need to be made more targeted.
Holyrood was good with his money. Growing the economy and generating additional cash to pay for public services is less obvious.
The bulk of that funding has always come from block grants from the UK Treasury.
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Supreme Court asked to decide whether referendum can be held without UK government approval
Although some of its powers have been expanded, the introduction of the UK Internal Market Act after Brexit enabled the last Westminster government to block the introduction of a Scottish bottle deposit scheme.
UK ministers also used reserved powers to block Scotland’s gender recognition reform, which was backed by the courts.
In a separate dispute, their lawyers successfully argued in court that Holyrood could not hold another independence referendum without their approval.
As Scottish Secretary, Conservative MP Alistair Jack was quite happy to be seen as a hard-nosed trade unionist who would check the nationalism of the SNP.
These clashes soured relations between the Scottish and British governments.
There appears to have been an attempt at a reset after the general election, when the SNP lost many seats and Labor returned to power in Westminster.
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Labor supporters celebrate victory in this year’s general election
These struggles probably say more about the parties in power at Scottish and UK level at the time than they do about the Scottish Parliament itself.
That is not to deny that there is scope for a review of the way Holyrood is run in order to put in place a system to hold the Scottish Government of the day to account.
With the exception of the Conservatives, all parties that have been consistently represented at Holyrood have been able to come to power.
Ron Davies, former Labour’s Welsh secretary, was fond of saying that devolution is a process, not an event.
A lot has evolved in the first 25 years, and there’s no doubt there will be more in the future.
There were early periods when the survival of the Scottish Parliament seemed far from secure.
The country got off to a shaky start with the sudden death of Donald Dewar, the nation’s first founding minister. His successor, Henry MacLeish, resigned over a real estate sublease issue. and the scandalous delays and cost escalation of the Holyrood Houses of Parliament construction project.
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Construction of the Capitol was hit by delays and increased costs.
It was left to Labor Prime Minister Jack McConnell to steady the ship. His SNP successors, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, expanded the boundaries of devolution.
The epic clash between Salmond and Sturgeon captivated Holyrood journalists for months.
That’s probably not what Donald Dewar expected.
In his opening speech to Congress in 1999, he described the agency as “the new voice of this land.”
Twenty-five years later, there are few important matters in Scotland that are not discussed. That’s where people come to petition and protest. Traveling to London is no longer mandatory.
The Isle of Holyroodhouse is firmly established as the center of Scottish public life.
Few doubt that it will continue to exist. And perhaps that is an important accomplishment in itself.
