The Scotland bill may now seem a bit irrelevant with the election of a majority nationalist government
The election of the majority Scottish Nationalist government under Alex Salmond on 5 May means that the Scotland bill, which cleared its final Commons stages yesterday, may now seem a bit irrelevant. The bill, based largely on the Calman report of 2009, is a reformist unionist bill in line with the original thinking that led to devolution in 1998. SNP opposition, and the election of the majority SNP administration, with an independence referendum in its sights, may make the bill look like yesterday's politics. Yet increased powers for Scotland are still the constitutional option favoured by a majority of Scots. So the issues in the bill still matter.
Mr Salmond has actually been paying quite a lot of attention to the bill recently. He appears to be doing this for three main reasons. First, because he thinks he can win some extra concessions from London on financial matters. Second, because he wants to continue to present himself as Scotland's champion within UK politics. He cannot do this by standing aloof and simply condemning the new bill. And, third, because his independence strategy requires him to prove to pro-devolution voters that he has tried his best to make it work, but that Scotland's wishes have in fact been frustrated at every turn and that independence is therefore the only solution. Mr Salmond is out campaigning for a referendum yes vote already.
Yet it is too easy to treat independence as the only issue in Scottish politics. The truth is otherwise ? as it was throughout much of the 2007-11 Scottish parliament as well. Independence remains a relatively low priority for most Scots, even after 5 May. The issues that matter most are the economy and public spending, the same as elsewhere. Even the SNP has always made clear that the referendum will not come before 2014 ? the Bannockburn anniversary year. Between now and then, Mr Salmond will try to take every issue ? whether taxation powers, public service reform or the workings of the UK supreme court ? and frame it in a nationalist manner.
That may seem easy work right now, in the afterglow of 5 May and with, perhaps, a famous byelection victory over Labour in the offing at Inverclyde next week. But it will actually get a lot harder than Mr Salmond's cheery optimism would imply. Much of this focuses around paying for Scottish public services. There was a taste of that this week when the head of Scotland's local authorities, Rory Mair, challenged the SNP to show how it could bridge the "25% gap between what we need to spend and the resources we have".
Finding the �3bn to bridge that gap is just one of many big questions in Scotland to which independence is not the only answer.
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