Independence is increasingly looking like the only solution
WITH every week that goes by, it is more clear that independence is the only way to protect Scotland’s interests and ensure our future is always in our own hands.
At Holyrood, the SNP Government has spent the past week delivering a budget which provides £42.5billion of investment in our public services and the economy.
It includes more money for education, including £180million to raise attainment in schools. It provides more money for our NHS – taking direct investment for mental health to more than £1.1billion, and raising investment in health and social care to more than £9billion.
It is a budget that is focused on the needs of Scotland’s economy and future generations – ensuring more than £3billion of investment to build 50,000 affordable homes, providing initial funding of £130million to establish a Scottish National Investment Bank and prioritising £500million to expand early learning and childcare provision.
And it’s a budget rooted in our social democratic values – improving pay for the public sector and ensuring a progressive income tax system, where the majority of working people pay less than the rest of the UK, while those at the top contribute a bit more to secure our public services.
Yet, on the same day the Scottish Parliament passed a budget to take the nation forward, Scotland’s chief economist revealed more evidence that UK Government plans to drag us out of the EU would be devastating for our economy – pushing us backwards.
The report revealed a no-deal Brexit, of the kind being threatened by the Prime Minister, could result in a recession worse than the 2008 financial crisis – hitting Scottish GDP by up to seven per cent and costing up to 100,000 jobs.
We know the past decade of Tory austerity cuts has been deeply damaging – slashing Scotland’s budget, holding the economy back, causing real wages to fall and increasing poverty and inequality. Now we face the prospect of decades’ more pain being imposed against our will.
Scotland didn’t vote for Brexit – nor did we vote for this shambolic Tory Government. In fact, Scotland hasn’t voted Tory in 64 years. Yet, time and again, we get right-wing governments, and damaging policies like Brexit, being imposed on us against our wishes.
While First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has been meeting partners in France and Canada to promote trade and investment, Theresa May continues to flog a dead Brexit deal, which will make the UK more isolationist and inward-looking – and leave us all poorer as a result.
Westminster is broken beyond repair and is incapable of serving Scotland’s interests. We’re in the middle of a constitutional crisis, on the verge of the Brexit cliff edge and yet the UK Government is still no further forward.
Instead of finding a solution to protect jobs and living standards, the Tories and Labour are in meltdown. They are fixated on their own internal divisions.
It is costing us dearly – as businesses withdraw investment, jobs are lost.
Yesterday, I wrote to Scottish Secretary David Mundell urging him to back calls for an extension to Article 50, to enable a second EU referendum. The UK Government has made a hash of the past two years, and with time running out, the only way to avoid a bad deal for Scotland is to put the brakes on Brexit now. I hope Tory Ministers are listening. Whatever happens, we can do better than this. If we want our decisions to be respected and our interests protected, independence is increasingly looking like the only sensible path.