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Are there any other views?

You did not mention the 32 per cent, though.

Jamie, do you have anything on public perception?

Many thanks for that.

Many thanks for that.

On the relationship issues, even then, McIntosh was saying things such as that Parliament and local government should set up a standing joint conference, which they called a covenant between parliamentarians and local government, with parity of esteem and all that. Did that happen? I do not recall whether it happened.

It was a clear recommendation:

“A formal working agreement should be established between local government and the Scottish Ministers.”

You could argue that the concordat became that and perhaps Verity house is trying to become that. Is that commentary fair?

Do our guests who are online have any comments on the journey that we have made from McIntosh to, say, Verity house? Have we learned any lessons, and is there hope that, through Verity house, we can overcome the issues?

Thank you for that. Professor Hall, do you have any views on the same matter?

Good morning. Jim Gallagher mentioned the McIntosh commission. I have a copy of the report here, and I want to explore some of your memories of it and how relevant its messages are to what we see now.

I jotted down your opening remarks about the Verity house agreement being full of warm platitudes and having no mechanism for choices and said why would anyone not agree with all that general stuff in the agreement.

I found a wee quote from Jean McFadden about McIntosh in 1999. She said:

“The recommendations in the first part of the Report are fairly bland and will broadly be welcomed by local government. Whether the proposal will work will depend very much on the philosophies and personalities of the Scottish Ministers”

and so on. You could almost read that as applying to today, given what you said a moment ago. What is your view about the McIntosh report, which was an important document in 1999, and what has happened since then? Did we basically succeed in taking forward McIntosh’s recommendations and proposals? Do you see some of the same issues needing to be resolved in the Verity house agreement as McIntosh talked about back then?