by Rab Bruce’s Spider

Anyone who thinks the talks between the UK and Scottish Governments to discuss repatriation of powers post-Brexit will lead to anything meaningful should think again. This is a typical Westminster tactic. They declare a willingness to talk, they even turn up and make some meaningless pronouncements, but they will only ever do the very bare minimum required to allow them to justify their stance.

Westminster will not change. Do you remember the MPs’ Expenses scandal? They made a big hullabaloo about changing the system to prevent such abuses, yet the new system means that the Expenses bill is now larger than it was before the earlier scams were revealed.

Do you remember the Smith Commission? After promises of "Nearest thing to Federalism", we were given a few scraps with built-in snares.

Do you remember the Scotland Act? Every single amendment proposed by the SNP was ignored. We were given what Westminster decided we would be given.

It will be the same with Brexit. The Repeal Bill will mean that powers will mostly reside with Westminster, and any gracious grants of devolved powers will come with strings attached.

We’ve already seen Michael Gove assure Danish fishermen that they will be allowed to fish in British waters after Brexit – a direct contradiction of the loud promises made to Scottish fishermen who rather foolishly believed that Westminster would look after their interests.

There will be more of this sort of thing in the coming months. There are already reports that the Repeal Bill will incorporate measures to ensure that nobody can sue the Government for breaking the law. That’s how much they care about the people they are supposed to be governing. Power is all that matters to Westminster, so don’t expect anything from the promises being made. They won’t be kept.