David Maddox: Devolution can be inspiring

It is not often that a Scottish political blog will open with a Cross of St George. However, in this case, this is not the flag of England so often reviled by people in Scotland, but the banner on display is to pay honour to a group of guests from Lombardy in Italy who visited Holyrood today.

The red cross on a white background is also the flag of Milan and is usually used as the flag of Lombardy too, although the official one is a green banner with a white flower (also pictured). It just acts as a lesson to remind us that symbols can mean different things around the world and that we should be careful with our prejudices and not leap to conclusions. The Catalonians, recent hosts of Alex Salmond, the First Minister, also fly the Cross of St George. The shared heritage is the Crusades.

However, it was the purpose of the Italian delegation's visit that was interesting. They were press officers for the Consiglio Regionale della Lombardia, translated as the Regional Council of Lombardy, something akin to the old Strathclyde Regional Council in size and influence.

Their interest in devolution brought them to Scotland, visiting Holyrood and The Scotsman to learn more about how it functions. This is because there is a push for devolution in Italy, particularly in the wealthy north where many believe too much money is lost to support the poorer south. It is interesting to note that Italy was only unified in 1861, making it relatively young compared to the United Kingdom's 300 years.

In Italy the party, which is part of the national ruling coalition, called Lega Nord (Northern League), first pushed the independence agenda, but now favours the devolution solution after seeing how successful it has been in Scotland. It used to model itself on the SNP- their leader Umberto Bossi (pictured right) loved the film Braveheart - but now has pretentions to the centre right rather than the centre left.

My guests told me that a recent national referendum on the issue failed because of oppositon largely in Rome and the south, but was strongly supported in the north. They clearly hope that some day their consiglio will be a parliament and devolved government.

All this goes to show that, however much we complain, and however many national conversations of Calman type commissions we set up, the devolution settlement in Scotland is seen internationally as a success and a model to follow and is something of which both Scotland and the UK as a whole can be justly proud.