Gavin Yates (Edinburgh, GYmedia): So what emerged from the first British-Irish Council meeting featuring the SNP and Plaid on Monday? In practical terms not very much. (Not even a reported spat about the official photograph).
As I predicted in my previous post, apart from a bit of horse-trading in the margins of the meeting over the £1.5 billion End of Year Flexibility underspend the meeting was marked with handshakes, smiles and lots of talk about ‘working constructively.'
"I look forward to working with Mr Salmond for the prosperity of the people of Scotland." said Gordon Brown, entering the talks at Stormont. "I think that is an entirely positive agenda" countered Alex Salmond later. Not exactly sparky stuff. But the meeting was more about positioning than anything else: both Salmond and the Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones (standing in for Rhodri Morgan) were on the same platform as the PM and on the same level as national leaders.
In Scotland, the real politicking is going on behind the scenes. Two key sticking points appear to have been de-creased if not fully ironed out. The issue of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is being firmly left with the Scottish Executive after it appeared that a deal on his repatriation to Libya had been done by Tony Blair in the fag-end days of his premiership.
The other issue is airguns. The previous Labour Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson struggled with the issue after a young boy was shot and killed with an airgun: as firearms policy is reserved to Westminster, she was left looking impotent. The SNP's Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill will be meeting Westminster counterparts this Thursday to begin a process of enabling Scotland to legislate in this area on its own.
At the start of his government Brown indicated he wanted an end to sofa style government and a return to cabinet. It also now appears that he is content to at least have ‘formal relations' with both the SNP and Plaid.
