Scotland: Referendum

Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke Excerpts

Monday 15th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, the noble Lord said that compromise was necessary and I think that all those who have followed this process would agree with him. He also mentioned clarity and we do have clarity in the single question. I am one of those who have never entirely understood what is meant by devo-max, and if you ask three people what they think it is you always get four different answers. Therefore, it is entirely right that we remove the opportunity for that question to be asked.

The question on the paper will be a question on independence. The precise wording will be for the Scottish Parliament to determine and will be set out in the referendum Bill to be introduced by the Scottish Government. However, the Scottish Government have agreed to refer the proposed referendum question and any preceding statement to the Electoral Commission for review of its intelligibility. It is important that interested parties will be able to submit their views on the proposed wording to the Electoral Commission as part of the commission’s review process in the normal way.

We have had experience of this already, although admittedly perhaps not on something this important or involving the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government will respond to the report, indicating their response to any recommendations that the Electoral Commission may make. The point is that this will be a very public process. Equally, constitutionally it is right that it must be up to a parliament to decide what question should be on the paper. That is what this Parliament would demand and I can understand why we have concluded that it is right for the Scottish Parliament to do the same thing.

[Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to add to this debate. There has been a startling degree of naiveté on the part of the Government in the negotiations that have taken place so far. I noted that the noble Lord the Leader of the House talked about the need for transparency and a level playing field, and he discussed the fact that a body of work is to be undertaken to ensure that the facts are properly put before the people of Scotland. I say to him that that is not enough. We have already had a degree of sophistry and confusion over whether Scotland would automatically be a member of the European Union and would have to adopt the euro. I have no doubt that, as a Scotsman, the noble Lord the Leader of the House has used the old toast, “Here’s tae us. Wha’s like us? Damn few, and they’re a’ deid”. That means that anyone who suggests that after independence Scotland will not be a land of milk and honey will be rubbished. It is not enough to say that a body of work will be undertaken. There will be a requirement for rebuttal and I ask the Minister to look hard at establishing a panel of neutral experts who will be available for that process of rebuttal.

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, I slightly object to the accusation of naiveté. Many of us warned the Labour Party many years ago that this is exactly what would happen, and it was senior members of the Labour Party who continually told us that this was the thing that would stop the nationalists in their tracks. However, the years go by and now here we are, all working together to try to stop this process. I do not think there is any naiveté anywhere in this Government about the role that the First Minister of Scotland takes or the verbal gymnastics and occasional distortions that take place. The Government are utterly committed to providing evidence-based information to the people of Scotland so that they can very clearly see what the impact of breaking up the United Kingdom would be and what the separatist cause would lead us to.