YOUR leading article on the devolution White Paper seemed to me to be a fair and well-balanced summary of the crucial situation in which Scotland now finds itself (July 25).
Donald Dewar and his ministerial colleagues - aided by the incognito civil servants at the Scottish Office - have obviously made a good job of the preparation and presentation of the proposals and deserve much credit.
I thought the so-called junket at Edinburgh Castle was a relatively modest but justifiable celebration. It was certainly very much in stark contrast with all the ballyhoo we had last year when Michael Forsyth staged the near fiasco of the return of the Stone of Destiny.
That event was supposed to be of great significance to the Scottish people and part of Tory propaganda in the run-up to the General Election, as was the touring programme of the Scottish Grand Committee; but such stunts were of no avail.
The SNP leadership also tried to use the return of the Stone of Destiny as a kind of symbol for the resurgence of nationalism. They only managed to gain two seats from the Tories but failed to make the much heralded breakthrough and instead had to make do with a meagre increase in their share of the total vote of the Scottish electorate.
Donald Dewar's statement on the White Paper had the interesting spectacle of a rather subdued Alex Salmond giving a qualified welcome to the proposals for a Scottish parliament. He also attempted, unsuccessfully, to further his argument about sovereignty but was well put down by the Secretary of State reminding him that the Scottish electorate expressed its determination by giving overwhelming support to the parties which believed in devolution within the UK, rather than independence.
I enjoyed reading Donald Dewar's exclusive article about the long struggle and his belief in home rule. He mentioned the famous meeting of the Scottish Executive of the Labour Party which was held in Glasgow on Saturday, June 22, 1974. This was the day when Scotland was playing Yugoslavia in Frankfurt in the final rounds of the World Cup. The game was on television and, sadly, this caused a poor turnout of members at the meeting.
Proposals about the Labour Government's probable response to the Kilbrandon's Commission report on the Constitution were on the agenda. Along with Donald Dewar, George Robertson, Frank Gormill, and Hugh Brown, MP, I was one of the five who helped to start the move which eventually led to the adoption of devolution as party policy.
All this happened a long time ago but it's good to know - as the Chinese proverb apparently says - ''everything comes to him who waits''.
Tom Fulton,
21 Main Street, Dalrymple, Ayr.
July 25.
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