Entries for December 2014

When Gordon Brown made his key intervention in the final days of the referendum campaign, he promised a new devolution settlement which would be "as close to federalism as you can have in a nation where one part forms 85% of the population". Evaluating that claim requires a brief discussion of what federalism entails.

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While the recommendations of the Smith Commission fall well short of the submissions made by the pro-independence parties (seeTom Mullen’s post on this blog for analysis), it is also clear that the process has produced more extensive proposals for further devolution than any pre-referendum agreement between the unionist parties would have done.  Energy policy is a case in point.

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Clearly every aspect of the Smith Commission Report is of importance to both women and men.  What follows, is an attempt to assess where and how women have been specifically addressed, directly or indirectly, in the Report and its proposals.

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