Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 26 February 1992.
Mr Mike Watson
, Glasgow Central
12:00,
26 February 1992
If the Secretary of State believes what he has recently been saying about the constitutional issue in Scotland, he is gravely mistaken. He is only human and we all make mistakes from time to time, but the key is whether we learn from them. The Secretary of State has consistently refused to learn from his often-repeated mistake of assuming that he knows what is best for the people of Scotland and that they do not. Let me spell out what they have been saying to him in opinion polls for some time—the status quo is not an option. The Prime Minister appears to have grasped that fact, as have some of his parliamentary candidates, so when will the Secretary of State grasp it and enter the real world of Scottish politics?
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.