Smith Commission submission

My comments, on the proposed further powers to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, are informed by a local government career in community development and citizen participation.

The Smith Commission on more powers for the devolved Scottish Government has invited contributions from political parties, civic organisations and the general public. This is my own personal submission.

"In brief, my experience has shown that one the one hand communities are able to organise and to take responsibilities for local projects and services, and to contribute to policy development; and on the other hand that local and national government have yet to successfully support citizen participation and devolution of power, in spite of all their policies for consultation, citizen engagement, decentralisation, etc.

The reawakening of political engagement during the referendum process and the promise of increased powers for the Scottish Government is a unique opportunity to build a more participative democracy and to give Scots a degree of self determination that will allow them to deliver services, welfare and economic development in a way that reflects our different values and priorities.

Consequently, I support maximum devolution of powers to the Scottish Government, typically described as everything except defence and foreign policy. I would like to see this tied to local government improvements along the lines of COSLA's Strengthening Local Democracy report.

I think maximum devolution should happen as soon as possible within the present UK framework (ie with Barnett and Scots MPs at Westminster)  in order to maximise the engagement of Scottish citizens and to respond to the very large proportion of Scots who wants this; and then take time to look at the development of parliaments in the other UK nations and to eventually agree a UK constitution within which each nation can develop their own constitution. If this doesn't happen there will be a clamour for another referendum with all the disruption and animosity this is likely to engender."