Stone dead devo

Devolution is as dead as a Norwegian blue parrot. There's no point pretending anymore. Because it turns out the Sewel Convention is not worth the paper it is written on.

This is the mechanism by which the Scottish parliament can give Westminster permission to legislate on Scottish matters. Holyrood can pass a legislative consent motion authorising Westminster to decide things on its behalf. Alternatively, that consent can be witheld.

Or maybe not.

Given triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty has implications for matters within the competence of the Holyrood parliament, Holyrood's consent should be required for Westminster to trigger it.

I say should. However the Scotland Act in which this convention is described refers to "normal" circumstances in which it applies. Who gets to decide what is normal? Therein lies the rub. The UK Supreme Court has ruled, in relation to the UK government's appeal against its previous decision that Westminster must be consulted, that Holyrood need not be consulted. Westminster decides what's normal.

That is, Westminster decides the parameters within which Holyrood can exercise even those limited powers that have been devolved to it. Which is to say, nothing has been devolved at all. The non-binding status of the Sewel Convention means Holyrood can never be anything more than a toy parliament, irrespective of any "vow" about its permanent establishment.

So by ruling that a Legislative Consent Motion is not required for Brexit, the Supreme Court has effectively killed devolution stone dead.

Devolution was a fiction that survived as long as we pretended it was true. It was real as long as we believed in it. That is not possible anymore. We can no longer suspend our disbelief. The Supreme Court has shown us the man behind the curtain.

Today's Supreme Court ruling means the Scottish parliament may legislate only when and according to what Westminster deems "normal." Power devolved is power retained, and the whim and caprice of a bunch of unelected Tories still usurps the sovereignty of the Scottish people. This is unacceptable.

Where does that leave us?

Well, this whole thing was completely avoidable. This ruling was entirely predictable and was going to happen sooner or later. In anticipation of this, at any time since 1999, the Sewel Convention could have been established in statute. At any time since 2014 the parties to "the Vow" could have delivered the permanent parliament they promised.

Indeed, the legal pretence that has now been revealed, that we are all now forced to admit and can no longer ignore, would not be so bad, if the political obligation to consider the proposals for a differentiated Brexit put forward by the Scottish government had been taken seriously for even one minute by the administration in Whitehall, rather than publically treated with unalloyed contempt and triumphalist derision.

But no. The available options are narrowing. Brexit has ensured the continuity option chosen by the Scottish people in 2014 no longer exists. The particular version of Brexit being pursued seems contrived to aggravate as much as possible a Scotland that chose to remain in the EU. Brexit itself is becoming totemic for an emerging fascist international that must be resisted.

Scotland is now faced with a choice between independence and humiliation.