Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie puts some much needed positivity into the hitherto dismal and demotivating debate on Scottish independence. We’ve been drowning in a deluge of claim, assertion, counter claim and denial for months now and there are times when even this determined no voter is exasperated by Better Together’s inability to inspire. Yes Scotland and the SNP are just as bad.

The one glimmer of soul food for the federalist has come from Willie Rennie’s constant calls for the development of a consensus on more powers for the Scottish Parliament. He wants to see a common proposal to put to the electorate at the 2015 General Election. The Scottish Liberal Democrats were first off the mark with the publication of Federalism: the best future for Scotland in 2012. I wrote then about its proposals to channel power away from as well as to Holyrood.

Since then, there’s been a whole load of work done by various organisations, think tanks, civil society looking at how more powers could be given to the Parliament and a consensus is starting to take shape. The Labour Party and even the Conservatives have also been examining this and they will unveil their plans soon. The nationalists try to make out that a no vote will result in funding cuts and all manner of bad things even in the face of evidence to the contrary, yet they don’t say what they will do if their independence plans are rejected.

Now, Willie has asked Sir Menzies Campbell to take a look at these emerging ideas, outline the common themes and develop a roadmap to further devolution. This is bound to add momentum, although I wish he’d chosen a different name. Campbell II does sound a bit like a spaceship. Nobody’s going to the moon, here, although Return of the Ming does have a certain ring to it.

Willie gives a speech today spelling all this out:

I ask you to look at what is happening on a more powerful Scottish Parliament.

On the constitution, my party has refreshed our hundred-year-old commitment to ‘home rule all round’ and set out details of a Scotland, and a Britain, where people can have nimble, powerful governments on their side.

Our work has shown Labour what is possible and we have seen the previous hostility of the Conservatives to constitutional reform washed away with their Strathclyde Commission on more powers for the Scottish Parliament.

Reform Scotland has published Devo Plus. The IPPR and Alan Trench published Devo More.

The Welsh Assembly wants action on its powers.

And the UK Government is tackling to London-effect by signing City Deals with local authorities across England that puts powerful tools for skills, investment and infrastructure into the hands of local communities – including in the North East of England, I imagine to the delight of the Northern Echo.

The consensus for change is growing and I think we can be certain that, subject to the consent of voters at the 2015 election, decentralising reform across Britain is now building such momentum that it will happen.

To push that further I have asked Sir Menzies Campbell today to return to the issue.

In their first report, The Campbell Commission said, “We invite other parties, organisations and individuals across Scotland to consider our views and engage in principled debate. We are conscious that the constitutional structures of our country should be built on the broadest possible consensus if they are to endure and be sustainable”.

I want Campbell II to examine this emerging consensus.

I want to harness the expertise and insight that allowed Sir Menzies Campbell and the Scottish Liberal Democrats to publish our work first.

That expertise should now be turned to assessing the growing consensus and planning a timetable for implementing lasting, permanent constitutional change after the referendum.

Within a few weeks I want Campbell II to show just how widespread the consensus is and just how quickly it can be turned into actual change.

This shows how seriously I take this.

It’s interesting that he doesn’t specifically mention the other parties in his remarks. There is an implicit challenge to them, though, to get a move on and catch up with everyone else so that both the substance and timetable for meaty constitutional change can be presented as a proper alternative to independence. After all, polls show that that’s what people actually want. They don’t want to break up the UK, but they want the Scottish Parliament to raise much more of what it spends rather than merely receive a block grant from London. The Scotland Act, which will come into force next year, goes some way towards that, but Michael Moore, the former Secretary of State who introduced it, always said it was a stepping stone. Willie’s intervention is welcome and it’s to be hoped that the debate become focused around the additional powers that people want.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social