Poor Legislation and the Lack of Accountability

Before the Scottish Parliament election in 2016, while watching Holyrood, I had come to the conclusion that the SNP had to either lose their majority or their members needed to be less apathetic and hold them accountable. This was to insure that legislation passed by the Scottish Government was not bulldozed through the parliament again. It had been noted by the former presiding officer Tricia Marwick that the Scottish parliament was rather pitiful at holding the Scottish government accountable and this is the only way legislation is scrutinised by Scotland's devolved administration. Losing their majority would insure that Scottish government would be more accountable, or so I thought.

While everyone is distracted in the General elections the Scottish parliament passed the first stage of merging the British Transport Police (BTP) with Police Force Scotland.

As I watched the debate at Holyrood I realised believing that SNP losing their majority would insure that the Scottish government was held to account over legislation was just a joke and the added dimension of the pointless nature of the debates in the main chamber reinforced that.

The SNP can now only get legislation through if other political parties support their motions in parliament. The SNP has had the help of the Scottish greens to railroad legislation through in this parliamentry session. This carries a conflict of interest for insuring good legislation. The Scottish Green party is the only other independence supporting party at Holyrood and the main debater for them this time was none other than John Finnie MSP.

For those that don't know who John Finnie is: With a little history check you soon find out until 2014 John Finnie was a SNP MSP that defected to the Scottish Green party after a row over NATO membership. He stood down from the SNP and was an independent in association with the Scottish Green Party until he was re-elected in 2016 as a Scottish green MSP.

What adds a bigger conflict to John Finnie alliance with SNP is his daughter who is Ruth Maguire MSP SNP, was also debating for the merger to pass stage 1.

To top this off they had the support of the Liberal Democrats. They agreed that the proposal that was presented in the debate was inferior but they gave their support to the principle and if the inferior legislation couldn't be amended at stage 2 then they would withdraw their support. Weird because Liberal democrats are actually supporting it while recognising this was already a bust hand.

This is where believing a loss of a majority in the chamber would help Scotland has gone a bit belly up. The Scottish parliament had a chance yesterday to say, this legislation is nowhere near ready and we have no support beyond this chamber in its present form and it would be better to smooth out more of the wrinkles and then represent the legislation to the chamber that is more fitting for Scots Law because promise of triple locks isn't enough to write law on.

Not actually surprised with Scottish Green's position, since the start of this parliament session they have sided with SNP on many things and are no real opposition for Scotland against government. Quite down heartening to an independence supporter like me that the SNP have no accountability in the other independence supporting party on how they legislate into Scots Law.

The liberal Democrat's support is far more disappointing and the loss of Alison McInnes ex-MSP presence is showing with their lack of ability to stand up against poor legislation that has an authoritarian centralisation air to it.

I understand from independence supporter's point of view why the control of the Scottish division of BTP needs to be held accountable in Scotland but it was clear from the debate yesterday that the SNP have chosen a centralisation path for this and with the help of Scottish parliament they have now bulldozing a potentially high cost and badly put together plan that places more pressure on the police force Scotland at a time where the merger of all the force still hasn't come together successfully. It would have been better to make BTP a separate division until such times police force Scotland got it act together.

This leads me to pointless nature of the actual debates in the main chamber. The point of debates is to present all arguments so the best solution is found, not just 1 party always having to have their own way. It was clear that no one from the SGP and SNP were thinking of the standard of legislation that has been presented and stood side by side giving reason to why this was best and only way to proceed with integrating BTP into Scotland for accountability.

The chamber during the debate was mostly empty with only the debaters present until voting time, the debate did nothing to decision time and it was clearly a pre-arranged vote result prior to the debate, with most MSP not even bothering to listen to even the convener of the committee that over saw the proposal prior to the debate and the multiple concerns that they provide on how this legislation wasn't anyway where near stage 1.

Once again Scotland has a Government and parliament that has no accountability to the people of Scotland and are legislating to suit their own plan rather than find the best solutions for Scotland.

The lack of a separate second chamber beyond the party elected has seen Scotland's Parliament introduce legislation into Scotland that has been deemed substandard.

If the debate and motion passing stage 1 taught me anything it is that Scots have no voice at our own parliament even with a minority administration of Government and too often the parliament sides with government, keeping them unaccountable to the people.

Such parcel of Rogues in a Nation!