Scotland: Referendum

Lord Steel of Aikwood Excerpts

Monday 15th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, on the first question, it will be up to both Houses of the Parliament to agree the Section 30 order. I did not understand the second question at all. To coin a phrase, we are all in this together. Across this Dispatch Box—I do not know where the noble Lord stands on these great matters; I thought that he was rather in favour of the United Kingdom—we will be working together to ensure the desired result in the referendum.

[Lord Steel of Aikwood]

My Lords, we have already had a year and a half of debate about Scottish independence and I must admit that the thought that we are to have another two years of debate fills me with gloom. We have the consolation of knowing that, through that period, public opinion has moved in favour of retaining our position in the United Kingdom and we must hope that that continues.

I was encouraged by what the noble Lord said a moment ago about the Electoral Commission, because the Statement itself was weak on that question. If the Electoral Commission takes the view that any question beginning with the words, “Do you agree that”, is a leading question, surely it will not be possible for the Scottish Parliament to ignore that. Would it not be better than having a yes/no question simply to have two conflicting statements against which the electorate put a cross: either, “I am in favour of Scottish independence”, or, “I am in favour of retaining the United Kingdom”?

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, under this legislation, the referendum must take place by the end of 2014—I think that essentially it is understood that it should be in the autumn of 2014—so there is plenty of time to go. Some people will find that hard to put up with; some people will find it reasonable that we should have plenty of time to discuss these important issues. As for the question, the Electoral Commission is not binding on the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Parliament must ultimately approve the question. The point that I was trying to make is that if there was a leading question with which the Electoral Commission disagreed—its report will be made available to the Scottish Parliament—I suspect that there would be a political price to pay for that.