Pat Kane (Glasgow, Scottish Futures): Civic Scotland is rousing itself to meet the challenge – or as Nairn and Ascherson would put it, the threat – of Gordon Brown's new 'constitutional convention' for the United Kingdom. This weekend sees a busy flurry of activity, both in public space and in the media.
Scotland now has an independent Constitutional Commission which sets out to "ensure that any proposals for constitutional developments that affect Scotland are fully debated and decided in Scotland... to prepare the broad outline of a draft Constitution for Scotland." Blessed by Canon Kenyon Wright (a moving force behind the first Scottish Constitutional Convention of 1988) the Constitutional Commission finds a strong press supporter in the Sunday Herald. This weekend the paper will intensify its campaign for a Con-Con, publishing arguments from the main players. It wants to see any Convention have a 'multi-option referendum' as one of its outputs, a simple yet radical call it's an example of the Scottish press taking its proper Habermasian role, as protector of the health of the public sphere.
There are new-media actors too, doing their bit. On Saturday, YouScotland – the spunky Web 2.0 activist site, which uses all the free software it can find, and all forms of channel (video, forum, message board, e-petitions), to rouse the cyber-citizenry – is having its first public meeting in Falkirk Football Stadium. The sheer emergent nature of all this activity is encouraging – as Iain Maclaren, one of our lead bloggers in Scottish Futures says, civic actors have to think innovatively about the nature of the democratic participation they call for.
And in addition, as Alex Salmond's constant probing at the legitimacy of the UK state over Scottish sovereignty shows – see his intervention over Blair's airy 'memo of understanding' with Gaddafi over the Lockerbie bomber, whose initial negotiation appeared to disregard the jurisdiction of Scots Law over the matter – the constitutional agenda in Scotland always has nation-state independence as one possible Scottish future. To forget this would be to misrecognise the particular nature of democratic renewal in Scotland – and to misconceive the urgency that motivates many of its participants.
