Cameron is Wrong. The Conservatives did get it right.

In a programme to be broadcast on BBC Scotland tonight (Holyrood and the Search for Scotland's Soul), David Cameron has said about the Conservative Party's position on devolution at the time of the Scottish and Welsh referendum:

"I don't think we got it right."

"I think you can argue that the principled position, of arguing that devolution within a unitary state is extremely difficult and there are all sorts of problems it brings, and those problems are there."

"But I think where we went wrong was we should have spent more time in government thinking, how do we give legitimate help to those people within our United Kingdom who want to have a greater expression of self-government?"

Should a party which professes to be The Party of the Union really have been helping out with "greater expressions of self-government", if it were obvious where those "greater expressions" would lead?

I think the Conservatives had an incontrovertible argument at the time of the referendums, i.e .the end and logical result of the lop-sided constitutional changes proposed would be a resurgence of separatist sentiment and naturally following on from that, a weakened United Kingdom. They have been proven sadly right.

It will also be interesting to see Tony Blair’s ("by temperament probably pretty unionist," doncha ya know) take on the whole shambles; he apparently says that the process went against his "natural political leanings". What danger did he see with the constitutional mess being proposed? Has he also been proven right?

Finally and once again, hitting it square on the button, Tam Dalyell:

Predictably and predicted, foreseeably and foreseen, by me, George Cunningham, and indeed Enoch Powell, during the Commons debates of 1977–79, a Scottish Parliament, once established, is going to ask for more and more, and will remain discontented until such time it has got it. It is in the very nature of parliamentarians to demand more powers and financial resources for the institutions in which they find themselves. It is absolutely par for the course that the parties – Labour, Liberal and Conservative – should have endorsed the Calman report before they can possibly have had time to read, let alone digest, Calman's tome and recommendations.

In other words, Calman, yet another own-goal by the Unionist parties in Scotland.