We are Devo.

Tomorrow, we witness the SNP - Plaid Cymru debate calling on the dissolution of the UK parliament. Potentially if enough Labour MP's grow a spine, the SNP and PC could bring down a Labour Government leading to a Conservative government. Sound familiar?

All my political life, I've heard Labourites whine that it was the SNP who brought down the Callaghan Labour Government in 1979, which lead to Thatcher and the decimation of Scotland's heavy industries. The vile old Willie Ross accusation of Tartan Tories has been thrown about with great gusto.

Try telling them that Callaghan made no mention of the SNP in his retirement biography and it falls on deaf ears, try telling them that the reason the SNP put down a motion of censure in the Commons was down to the work of conniving anti-Devolutionist Scottish Labour MP's and you have the full on digits in ears whistling Land of Hope and Glory mentalism.

In 1974 using the "It's Scotland's Oil" slogan- the SNP were on a high with 11 Westminster seats - it looked as if the SNP were unstoppable, and that Scotland was on its way to independence.

One person south of the border truly hated the very idea of Devolution, step forward Hilda Margaret Thatcher. When Harold Wilson launched his Devolution Bill to create elected Assemblies in Scotland and Wales, Thatcher whipped the Tory troops into line. Edward Heath (who had promised a Scottish assembly) fumed and sulked on the back benches, Malcolm Rifkind and the late Alick Buchanan-Smith resigned from the shadow cabinet.

In 1976 Harold Wilson's devolution bill sailed through the Commons with a majority of 45, only the Tories were opposed. All looked rosy only for it to founder in Committee in 1977. It was replaced by two separate Bills, one for Scotland and one for Wales.



In January 1978, the 32 yeard old ginger garden gnome Robin Cook, came up with a lovely wheeze, chummying up to his tame stooge, George Cunningham, the Scottish-born MP for Islington South, the pair concocted a plan to scupper the planned referendum. With the support of five Labour MPs including Old Etonian Tam Dalyell they managed to insert into the devolution bill the reservation that unless 40% of the total electorate voted "yes", then the measure would fall. Not 40% of the vote, but 40% of the electorate. Which was something that no political party had ever achieved. This was Westminster dirty tricks par excellence.



I vaguely remember the period running up to the Devolution Referendum of March 1979, I was 16, too young to vote and a frustrated horny young buck, who was still into the Clash. The Labour Party in Scotland seemed to be going through one of its periodic eat-your-babies moments. Brian Wilson, Robin Cook and Tam Dalyell roared at Mary Marquis and John Toye that devolution was the work of Satan. The "Labour Movement Yes" campaign, ran by of all people an awkward student known as Gordon Brown was intent on winning devoultion on its own, avoiding the cross-party "Yes for Scotland" campaign. Helen Liddell, then secretary of the Scottish Labour party (now anonymous in Australia) claimed "We will not be soiling our hands by joining any umbrella 'Yes' group."

With the waters well and truly muddied, to such an extent that the electorate were as confused as a first time voter faced with a Douglas Alexander ballot sheet, the referendum went ahead on March 1, 1979. The turnout was 63.8% low by the standards of the day, massive by comparison to last weeks Euro referendum.

The 'YES' vote had a majority of 100,000. One million two hundred and thirty thousand, nine hundred and thirty seven people living in Scotland voted YES. The proportion of the electorate who had voted "yes" was 33% - short of the Cook -Cunningham 40% rule. As it was intended to, the 40% rule derailed devolution for the best part of twenty years. Ten years on from devolution, we're only now beginning to see how a Government wholly committed to the well being of the Scottish people might actually work.

The 40% rule was undemocratic and the referendum results justified the establishment of a devolved assembly in Scotland. When the SNP group approached Callaghan and asked him to reconsider the 40% amendment, he refused, and consigned himself to the political wilderness. Even if he had survived the motion of censure, Callaghan was toast. The 1970's were memorable for choppers, punk, strikes and power cuts. labour had been found wanting, thrawn to the Unions, laughed at by industry.

Within weeks of the General Election, the Scotland Act was binned by a triumphalist Thatcher. Once again, home rule was off the agenda.

Tomorrow, Parliamentarians of all stripes get a chance to vote on a fractured Labour Government. The contrast between Westminster and Holyrood has never been more vivid. It's time to get Labour out, and elect enough SNP MP's who have one sole aim, to deliver Independence to this small Northern European country that just wants to be normal.

George Cunningham, the man who dashed the aspirations of a country for a generation, is still alive. He left the Labour Party in the early 1980's and was one of the co-founders of the SDP, problem is nobody really remembers him.