Enough campaigning. Is the next Scottish government prepared to govern?

  ‘The institution which is absent in this analysis is the Scottish Parliament. With good reason: it is largely irrelevant.

Parliament is not in any meaningful way a location where the performance of the Scottish Government is challenged and improved. It has excellent resources in Audit Scotland (one of the success stories of devolution) providing the information which would enable an effective parliamentary system to hold the government’s feet to the fire. But they are barely warm.’  That makes for very uncomfortable reading for those of us who spent years arguing for a Scottish Parliament, expecting devolution would deliver better policies and improved outcomes.