BRITAIN: Scottish first minister Jack McConnell has hailed what he called "the union dividend" in a Scotland that enjoys home rule but remains firmly within the United Kingdom.
In a fiercely patriotic speech last night, Mr McConnell defined subsidiarity and solidarity as the "bedrock" principles of a Scottish devolution settlement granting Scots their "dual citizenship" and thus "the best of both worlds".
And he warned they risked sinking into a "collective inertia" should the demand for more powers become a persistent feature of Scottish political life.
Delivering the John P Mackintosh lecture in East Lothian, Mr McConnell said: "In the Scottish parliament we have a whole welter of powers at our disposal. It can't be other than sensible for us to make the fullest possible use of those powers before demanding lots more. For if such demands become a persistent feature of Scottish politics, and there are those who want this to be so, then we'll sink all too quickly into a collective - and wholly self-imposed - inertia."
Two leading economists in Scotland have argued that the Scottish parliament should gain more control over tax policy, while the Scottish National Party, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives want greater tax-varying powers.
However, Mr McConnell dismissed this as a "fad" ahead of his speech, in which he warned that the power to act would be diminished if pro-independence politicians got into the habit of "girning" that the provisions of the Scotland Act were too restrictive. "That would be to betray home rule, and ultimately to give up on the reform agenda - an agenda with a long, long way to run - that the Scottish parliament, as now constituted, enables us to carry through," argued Mr McConnell.
Indeed, the first minister suggested, the next developments in government might not be about the Scottish parliament at all.
Speaking on a day which saw the launch of an English constitutional convention in London, Mr McConnell said: "In the next 20 years the Westminster government will need to be able to respond more flexibly to the differing needs of the constituent parts of the UK. A one-size-fits-all policy is not always the best course of action."
Echoing the late MP John P Mackintosh's support for the devolution of power from London to Scotland as "a key objective in its own right", Mr McConnell was setting the stage for a protracted and bitter fight with a resurgent SNP all the way to next May's parliamentary elections.
One recent opinion poll suggested that independence might be more popular with Scottish voters than the current devolution settlement. The leader of the country's Catholics, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, has also joined the debate, indicating he would be happy if Scots claimed independence "before too long".
However, Mr McConnell invoked his own patriotism last night in rejecting independence as a replacement for "home rule". It was his duty "as a Scottish patriot", he said, "to make crystal clear . . . my conviction that withdrawal from the United Kingdom would not serve us well".
Rather than arguing that Scots couldn't afford independence, or were incapable of going it alone, Mr McConnell said his message was more positive. "I believe there is a prize to partnership and collaboration. By the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we do on our own. That is true for individuals but it is just as true for nations.
"England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have access to the 'union dividend' by virtue of being part of a strong UK."