Sir Ming happy to team up with old adversary Brown

Gordon Brown’s proposal to hammer out an agreed plan on devolution for Scotland ahead of September’s independence referendum has received a huge boost.

Sir Menzies Campbell, former Lib Dem leader and architect of his party’s most recent devo max plans, has told The Sunday Post he’d be happy to join the discussions.

At the launch of Labour’s anti-independence campaign last week, Brown called for all three unionist parties to get round the table and agree a devo max package as soon as possible.

Sir Menzies’ intervention suggests that could happen sooner rather than later.

He said: “Gordon Brown is a friend of mine. I’d be happy to appear on the same platform as him, and I’d be happy to sit down with him to discuss devo max.

“However, we are both now former party leaders so the initiative would have to come from higher up in both our parties.”

Brown invited Campbell to join him at an event in St Andrews this week but Sir Menzies will be in Washington with the Intelligence and Security Committee, just days after President Obama appeared to call for Scotland to stay in the UK.

Sir Menzies’ devolution proposals for the Lib Dems are the most radical of all three parties he calls for a federal UK. However there are aspects that chime closely with what ex-PM Brown has recently been advocating.

Explained Campbell: “If there is a No vote we must keep up the momentum towards further devolution.

“The Scottish Secretary should convene a meeting of all three parties and the SNP and persuade all of them to set out proposals in their 2015 manifestos and commit to bring forward legislation in the first Queen’s Speech.”

A question mark, however, will hang over whether the Lib Dems have the right to be at that table. An opinion poll last week gave them support of just 5% level with the Greens and they trailed in sixth in the Newark by-election ahead of the Monster Raving Loony Party.

Campbell prefers to focus on the failings of the other parties.

He said: “At the European elections Ukip got a lower percentage of the vote this year than last. Labour and the Conservatives did not do well.

“I wouldn’t want to begrudge Ukip’s success or belittle our disappointment, but there was an element of ‘a plague on all your houses’ in recent results.”

It’s just that the plague was more on the Lib Dems than anyone else.

Explains Campbell: “There was an atmosphere of unremitting sceptical coverage of Europe and the arguments were coloured by misrepresentation and prejudice. We’ve got to be more robust in talking up the benefits of the EU.”

To that end Sir Menzies delivered a memorial lecture at foreign policy thinktank Chatham House in defence of the EU.

He explained: “A good European now believes in both the principle of the EU and the need for reform. At this time when we’ve just remembered the sacrifices of D-Day and we’ll be marking 100 years since the start of the First World War, NATO and the EU have been the cornerstones of peace in Europe.”

His mention of reform is intriguing given that the Tories are working towards a remodelled EU that they can put to a referendum. He’s clear on the outcome of any EU in/out poll.

He said: “Britain will stay in the EU. Interestingly, the polls have hardened in favour of staying in, the more likely a referendum becomes.”

As the current EU debate moves from the recent elections to who should head the European Commission, effectively becoming the Prime Minister of Europe, Sir Menzies has criticised David Cameron’s tactics in trying to blackball Jean-Claude Juncker’s chances of getting the job.

He said: “Our adversarial politics don’t fit with the consensual way Europe goes about things. We need to build alliances. Threats to walk away won’t work.”

Would Sir Menzies fancy a final big job in Europe when he steps down from the Commons next May?

“No way,” is his answer.

A more pressing referendum is the Scottish independence poll.

Sir Menzies dismissed criticism of Better Together chief Alastair Darling for comparing Alex Salmond to North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Il.

He said: “We’re engaged in a robust debate. Alastair made a humorous remark. It’s perhaps significant the SNP are unwilling to accept the normal cut and thrust.”