Tories' plan for Scotland dismissed as a whimper

GOVERNMENT proposals to 'breathe new life' into the Union and strengthen Scotland's place within the United Kingdom were greeted yesterday with dismay that they were not more radical.

In a White Paper, Scotland in the Union, the Government announced plans to enhance the powers of Scottish Office, widen the debates of the Scottish Grand Committee of MPs and improve the public's access to Scotland's civil servants.

The outcome of the Prime Minister's 'taking stock' exercise, launched after the general election last April, is essentially a bureacratic and administrative devolution. The White Paper's principal authors, Ian Lang, the Secretary of State for Scotland, and his Minister of State, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, avoided any tinkering with Westminster's power.

Mr Lang restated his belief that Scotland had enjoyed nearly 300 years of economic benfits since the Union in 1707.

Although the Scottish Grand Committee will meet more, debate more issues and question more government ministers from both the Commons and the Lords, it will remain a purely debating forum with no real power.

With water privatisation in Scotland now almost a certainty on the Prime Minister's own admission yesterday and reform of local government imminent, the White Paper may rekindle another political problem in the form of renewed calls for a Scottish parliament.

'Taking stock' was intended to ease that pressure. It will not have done so. Bill Miller, Professor of Politics at Glasgow University, described the document as 'remarkably insincere'. He said: 'More powers have been given to Mr Lang, not more powers to the Scots themselves. It will do little to change his image as a colonial governor.'

The open government pressure group Charter 88 said the proposals would 'do nothing to redress the democratic deficit in the government of Scotland'. The Scottish people were being treated as 'consumers of government services rather than citizens with the right to govern themselves'.

Mr Lang told the Commons that his plans would make the Scottish Office 'less remote and more responsive'. The document was warmly welcomed by leading Scottish Tories. The party's Scottish chairman, Lord Sanderson of Bowden, said the Union had been strengthened and the White Paper 'emphasised the central role Scotland plays in the affairs of the UK'.

Other proposals include creating a Scottish Office telephone 'hot line' for the public, and increasing the number of branch offices of the Scottish civil service. Highlands and Islands airports, the arts in Scotland and training and technology innovation will all be brought under the Scottish Office umbrella. The White Paper said the Government was 'keen to encourage a distinctive Scottish approach to policy-making'.

However the Opposition benches, although struggling to present a united front after the Scottish National Party voted with the Government on Monday's Maastricht ammendment, still managed almost uniformly to condemn the White Paper.

Labour's shadow Scottish Secretary, Tom Clarke, dismissed it as 'a weak, unworthy whimper' while Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, thought it 'a constitutional charade'.

The Scottish Liberals' leader, Jim Wallace, criticised the enhanced role of the Scottish Grand Committee. 'While we will debate in Edinburgh, we will still have to vote in London,' he said.