YES supporter Lesley Riddoch has called for devolution in Scotland to extend to local councils, as part of an event at the SNP conference.
The fringe event, which featured author and broadcaster Riddoch and Scottish Government Minister for Parliamentary Business - and former minister for independence - Jamie Hepburn, reflected on 25 years of devolution in Scotland.
It was organised by the Electoral Reform Society, and also featured Esther Roberton, former coordinator of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, as a speaker.
During the event on Saturday, Riddoch (below) called on SNP members to sign a declaration which calls for “local councils” to return as the “building blocks of democracy” in Scotland.
“Scotland is like a tent that doesn’t have enough tent pegs to keep it up, it’s flapping,” Riddoch told the room.
“We have a laughable framework of democracy in Scotland.
“If you look at so many of our neighbouring countries who are 90% in favour of independence, or something like that, they have all been modelling independence in their local communities for decades and centuries.
“We have been modelling servility, we have been modelling distance from power.”
Riddoch introduced the Building a Local Scotland campaign, which is officially launching next week and which calls for devolution to be extended to local government.
“Highland Council covers a third of Scotland’s land mass. It covers 11% of Great Britain. It’s physically larger than Wales, which has 22 councils,” she pointed out.
“Fife used to have 85 councils, now there’s just one.”
🗣️ 'We want proper local councils back as the building block of democracy' We spoke with Yes campaigner @LesleyRiddoch on her new 'Building a Local Scotland' campaign pic.twitter.com/jD2zk9UODJ
— The National (@ScotNational) August 31, 2024
The campaign advocates for citizens’ assemblies to be held across Scotland, with the aim of gathering local and international evidence about “Scotland’s local democratic deficit”.
Riddoch said the campaign hoped to gather enough evidence in time for the SNP manifesto, ahead of the 2026 Holyrood elections.
She urged people to sign the declaration on the website and to share the campaign with local representatives.
Speaking to The National about the campaign, Riddoch said the declaration calls for “proper, local councils to come back as the building blocks of democracy”.
She added: “Currently we don’t have local democracy in Scotland. We have seven councils that are larger than the country of Luxembourg, which has 116 councils.
“We’re flaring people off, this really doesn’t work.”
‘The future of devolution is a transition towards independence’
When asked by an SNP member whether the Scottish Government was still planning to hold a citizens’ assembly on local government reform, as previously pledged in the SNP’s 2021 manifesto, Hepburn said the Government was “actively considering” plans.
He added that constraints around funding meant the Government would have to think “more creatively” about how it would enact a citizens’ assembly.
Hepburn (above) - who held the position of minister for independence until it was scrapped during John Swinney’s cabinet reshuffle in May - said that as well as reflecting on 25 years since devolution, we should also be reflecting on 10 years since the first Scottish independence referendum, which took place on September 18, 2014.
“Devolution is a transition towards independence,” Hepburn said, adding that the SNP had to continue engaging with the public and making the case for independence.
To find out more about the Building a Local Scotland campaign and to sign the declaration, visit buildlocal.scot.
