SNP fighting against doom-laden prophets
When good news arrives most people would welcome it, or so you might think.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case if you are an opposition party in Scotland.
Whether Labour, Tory or Liberal Democrat, you must always be poised to wring the smallest morsel of negativity from any welcome news connected with Scotland’s economy, the NHS or education.
In fact, any positive news about any aspect of life in Scotland must be analysed to a microscopic degree to try and blame the SNP Government in Scotland for something.
How tiring an existence must that be, to be constantly looking for ways to talk Scotland down, regardless of the facts?
And so it was a few weeks ago. Tory and Labour were licking their lips at speculative reports that Scotland’s economy was about to go into “technical recession.”
How disappointed they must have been then, when official UK Government figures showed that Scotland’s economy actually grew at four times the rate of the rest of the UK.
More figures showed that Scotland was, in fact, one of the most successful parts of the UK for attracting inward investment, second only to London and the south-east of England.
There was also welcome news on employment figures recently. The Office of National Statistics confirmed that Scotland’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since 1992. Deprived of their anticipated doomsday scenario, rather than welcome the news with at least a little enthusiasm that these were welcome signs of improvement in the economy, unionist politicians scrabbled around for terms such as “near miss,” and “lucky escape!”
Whilst there are still challenges ahead for the economy, not least from the uncertainty of a hard, cliff edge, Tory Brexit, now unashamedly supported by Labour, these figures reinforce the fact that the fundamentals of Scotland’s economy are strong.
And it is not all just down to a welcome rise in North Sea output. Manufacturing output is also up.
This is partially due to the resumption of steel production at the Dalzell plant after the Scottish government intervened to save this key asset, one of many actions taken to boost manufacturing, which included supporting the Clydebridge steelworks in Cambuslang.
In other good news, the Nuffield Trust acknowledged that the NHS in Scotland was the best performing Health Service anywhere in the UK.
The report they released was called “Learning from Scotland’s NHS” and outlined some of the lessons the NHS in other parts of the UK can take from Scotland.
And yet, despite this, plus the news that the vast majority of health boards, including NHS Lanarkshire, are meeting their four hour A&E targets, no positive acknowledgment from opposition parties in Scotland for this accolade, or recognition of the efforts of the hard working NHS employees who got us there.
Following the announcement from the Scottish Government that it is to end the 1 per cent public sector pay cap, despite the lack of action on this from the UK Tory Government, and against a backdrop of continuing Tory budget cuts, NHS staff and other public sector workers will see salary improvements in the coming year that better reflect rising living costs. The Scottish Government has called on the UK Government to follow suit on scrapping the 1 per cent pay cap but the Chancellor, Philip Hammond has, instead, told public sector workers that they are “overpaid!”
Labour are no better, saying one thing in Scotland and doing another thing in England and Wales. The Labour Administration in Wales have refused to commit to lifting the cap. Labour in Wales have also increased Student Tuition Fees, whilst UK Labour want to abolish fees in England showing.
The rest of the UK can learn from what is happening in Scotland. Whilst there is still work to be done, Scotland is moving forward, while the rest of the UK is in a muddle. You just wouldn’t know it by listening to the opposition parties here in Scotland.