Blair in particular when in the Shadow Cabinet was shocked when he realised that his then leader the late John Smith refereed to Scottish Devolution as "Unfinished Business) Smith actually believed it.
Looking a t Ed Miliband there does not seem to be any real desire to continue with the process and there doesn't seem to be desire in the ranks of Labour in Scotland Wales let alone Westminster for a real devolution settlement apart for reasons of political expediency.
So it welcome to here Labour's policy review chief Jon Cruddas
saying .
The British state is "no longer fit for purpose" and people are "disenchanted"
He said political parties were at risk "of being past their sell-by date".
Labour would have to harness modern technology to bring government "closer to the people", he argued.
In a speech to the Institute for Government, Mr Cruddas warned: "People feel a sense of being locked out of government and they know it."
He said people in the modern UK felt a "sense of abandonment" about politics.
"They are losing confidence in the ability of our public institutions to serve a notion of the common good," he said.
"Those who take decisions on behalf of others, whether in the public or private sector, are too often unaccountable.
He argued:
"Our established political parties are in danger of being past their sell-by date.
"Their tribes are shrinking, their membership is declining, their hierarchies and bureaucracies too slow and cumbersome.
"Arguably they stifle innovation, creativity and initiative."
He said that where once political parties were "vital intermediary institutions between people and the state", in some parts of the country they had "become so disconnected from society they can no longer fulfil this role properly".
And he called for greater use of technology to create "a new way of governing our country".
It is when Mr Cruddas called for a "more federal union, which gives English, Scottish and Welsh people a stronger voice and more control over their lives and a new model of the state to do it". That perhaps we should sit up an notice.
In the next Parliament we could have a Plaid,SNP,Green Bloc who in a hung parliament will be looking who to support .
Neither Cameron or Miliband look like worthy recipients of the backing of such a Bloc but maybe Mr Crudass could be someone they can work with.
Constitutional change will be an important issue in the next parliament and it will not deliver Independence which I think is the only real solution
Although attempts are being made to derail it spearheaded by t Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown backed by the Unionist media saying politicians in Scotland must stop obsessing about constitutional change and focus on improving people's lives.
What Brown is real saying is "obsessing about constitutional change"is threatening my Party in Scotland
A odd statement after what Cruddas appears to be calling for and we can only speculate who really speaks for Labour,
But alliances will have to made a progressive forces will have to seek any in Labour (if they exist) who are prepared to work with them.
John Crudass may be one of them hopefully and like John Smith he really believed in what he says we can only wait and see,
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