THEY say that every day is an education, and Scotland can certainly rely on Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for gaslighting and dad dancing, to teach us new and surprising meanings to commonplace words in the English language. Perhaps, like me, you were labouring under the misapprehension that the word augment means to make something greater by adding to it, to increase or to enlarge. However, thanks to Michael Gove, we now know that we were wrong – augment is in fact a synonym for bypass, sideline, undermine, weaken and hollow out.
The Conservative government of which Michael Gove is a part has been attacking the devolution settlement for years. The Conservatives have never liked devolution and opinion polls show that a significant number of their supporters would like to abolish the Scottish Parliament. The Conservatives know that doing so would put rocket boosters under the case for Scottish independence so instead they are doing what they can to bypass and sideline Holyrood, hollowing the devolution settlement out from within.
The Conservatives are embarking on these unilateral changes to the devolution settlement without so much as a pretence of obtaining the approval of Holyrood to do so, never mind seeking a mandate for them from the people of Scotland. This is in direct breach of the commitment that the Conservatives made to Scotland in 2014 not to make any changes to the devolution settlement without the express consent of the Scottish Parliament.
The Conservative attacks on devolution have increased since Brexit, as devolution is incompatible with the Tory vision of a unitary post-Brexit British state. The most recent assault on the devolution settlement is the provision within the Conservatives' UK Internal Market Act which allows Westminster to bypass the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and to spend directly in Scotland and Wales on matters which are devolved.
The UK Government has recently claimed that "many" Scottish councils have put in funding bids directly to the UK Government for money from the so-called Levelling Up Fund to be spent on projects which fall under the remit of the Scottish Parliament. When he was asked about this development this week during a press conference with Scottish political journalists in London, Gove insisted that his government was not bypassing devolution at all – it was in fact "augmenting devolution”.
This is "augmenting devolution" in the exact same way that when you allow someone to borrow your car and they drive it into a tree, writing it off, they have not irreparably damaged your vehicle, they have in fact augmented your means of transport because now when you want to get to work in the morning you no longer automatically get into your car. Now you get to choose between walking or taking the bus, the train, a bike or a taxi, and you should be grateful to them for augmenting your transportation options in such a selfless manner. Likewise we should be grateful to Michael Gove for augmenting the meaning of the word augment in this way.
This piece is an extract from today's REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
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