Winds of change not blowing as Dáil dodges meaningful reform

Dáil Éireann sits again this afternoon after the summer recess, serene in the knowledge that alone of the five main legislative assemblies on these islands it is impervious to the possibility of effective change. 

Tomorrow’s Scottish referendum, if successful, will usher in not only constitutional crisis, but change there unseen since the ascension of James VI of Scotland as James I of England in 1603. On the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, it is worth remembering that of the army led north by King Edward II barely one third made it back alive to England.

If Scotland is lost tomorrow, survival even on that scale among the current crop of Westminster leaders is questionable. David Cameron will have disastrously miscalculated. David Miliband will have allowed an essential part of any majority he may ever have at Westminster slip away. And Nick Clegg will have underlined his irrelevance again.