By Alasdair Galloway

Not content with objections to getting the Civil Service to fulfil its customary role of supporting their elected government, Foulkes is intent on stopping “illegal” International spending by the Scottish Government, according to the Sunday Herald this morning (https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23763615.lord-foulkes-challenge-illegal-overseas-spending-snp-ministers/). The cost of maintaining Scottish international offices in 2022/23 in China, the USA, Canada, France, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Denmark was £7 million. Foulkes considers this ultra vires.  

Indeed, the report quotes him as having a 5 point plan: 

1. Follow up the Simon Case Review to find what action has been taken 

2. Challenge the spending on some of the overseas offices and the trips overseas by Ministers 

3. Follow up concerns that money allocated by the Treasury to the Scottish Government for specific purposes has been diverted elsewhere 

4. Catalogue the growing list of scandals such as Gupta, Ferries, Rangers and other Court cases, Credit Card expenditure, Deposit Return Scheme etc. 

5. Further challenge on expenditure on the Independence Minister and his retinue 

Of most interest are 3-5 for their contiguity with the exchange Foulkes had with Offord (quoted in Baron Foulkes), as implementing these would be fundamentally at odds with the freedom of discretion exercised by the regional administrations under devolution, for which they would be answerable to their electorates. Four and five suggest review by Westminster of the policies   and actions of the devolved administrations, even when clearly within their powers. Currently the most problematic part of this is that the party in power at Westminster is not in government in any devolved administration, and particularly in Scotland their support is limited. In any event, it is only at Westminster that the Conservatives have been elected with a majority. Substantially, this stems from England.  

One has to ask, as we have before, what is the point of devolution when decisions can be overturned by a whim by Westminster, set on a policy of re-centralisation rather than the “let a thousand flowers bloom” approach of devolution? 

If we consider 2 we can, though, pose the question of whether Foulkes is over-reaching himself here? Taking his case in its strongest form, the Scottish Government has no powers over the constitution, so there is a – albeit somewhat limited – case. However, with regard to overseas offices, his problem is that devolved powers include 

• agriculture, forestry and fisheries 

• economic development 

• sport and the arts 

• tourism 

On each of those there is a clear case for offices abroad, not least the first (as food and drink) and the last. Indeed, international offices have been opened prior to devolution by the Scottish Office as well as by quangos such as the Scottish Development Agency.  

The problem for Foulkes is that his aim – besides making life as hard as possible for the Scottish Government – is that his preference is for the UK to be presented abroad not as four separate administrations with their own priorities, but as the UK.  

For instance, a Scottish Government would be looking to focus on sales of whisky as well as food and drink products. Tourism would emphasise Edinburgh Castle, the Highlands, and is there a Loch Ness monster. While whisky might have some dominance even in a UK-based approach (worth £6.2 billion last year), otherwise Scotland gets lost. For instance, while not underestimating the significance of tourism for the UK, where such as financial services continues to rule, but lacks such dominance in Scotland – ie relative importance differs between Scotland and the whole UK.  

Tourism at the UK level is encouraged to come through London. The organization of air travel in the UK is “hub and spoke”, the London airports being the hub, with spokes going out to the regions, including Scotland. Check out the destinations at Glasgow and Edinburgh. For sure there are international destinations, but these are eclectic, and in one case (Schiphol) it takes Scotland into another hub and spoke arrangement. One example of this is that to fly from Glasgow to Cork, one of the cheapest flights is via Schiphol!  

It is almost as though the aim is to lock Scotland up and keep it a secret. For instance a good deal of whisky exports goes out via Gatwick. There is much talk of Scotland’s energy wealth but to realise the value of this as it develops in scale, there is a need for it to be exported to Europe via an interconnector. Yet the only interconnector from Scotland goes to Northern Ireland. The interconnector with Europe, closest to Scotland, comes ashore at Middlesborough! Their locations are shown in this map – most south coast, some on east coast of England, but not a single one in “energy-rich” Scotland.  

However, the fact remains that powers over these areas have been devolved to Scotland – they are ours. But, the implication of this paper is that really this doesn’t matter, for the centralising policy of the Westminster government means that they will find some way of preventing it from happening. Use S. 30 to prevent, go to the Supreme Court to be told we don’t have the powers, use Henry VIII powers (https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/henry-viii-clauses/) to have their way without debate. ‘Our way or the highway’? 

In conclusion, an image of the man we should fear (check the trousers – light coloured aren’t a good idea, unless you are careful, at his age). 

And yet, we need to take him seriously!