11 years of promises but few results from SNP

IT DOES exactly what it says on the tin. An advertising slogan that has become part of everyday conversation. It means straightforward. No nonsense. Action and guaranteed results. The problem with the Scottish Government is there seems to be little inside the tin to fulfil the promises it bears.

After 11 years in power, Nicola Sturgeon last week revealed her Programme for Government.

She re-announced many things she promised years ago but hasn’t actually got around to delivering, such as a national investment bank or a new way of buying energy. The timetable is still manana.

Let’s compare and contrast her with others of similar longevity in government.

Love her or loathe her, in 11 years as prime minister, Margaret Thatcher radically reformed the economy and the stock market, privatised the utilities and tamed the power of trade unions.

She took on Arthur Scargill’s National Union of Mineworkers – which had brought her predecessor as Tory leader, Edward Heath, to his knees – and won, although she still closed fewer pits than Harold Wilson.

She put climate change on the global agenda and helped close the hole in the ozone layer.

She was the architect of the European Union’s Single Market. She formed an alliance with then US President Ronald Reagan that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. And she won the Falklands War. I could go on.

In ten years as prime minister, Tony Blair, in tandem with Gordon Brown, presided over an unprecedented period of economic growth and the most radical redistribution of wealth of modern times.

More children and pensioners were lifted out of poverty than ever before. He radically reformed health and education and established the Scottish parliament as well as the Welsh Assembly.

He brought peace to Northern Ireland and defeated fascism in the Balkans. I could go on.

In 11 years as the Government in Scotland, the SNP has put up the price of white cider and recently started giving every newborn Scot a cardboard box to sleep in. After that I get a bit stuck.

Don’t get me wrong. The records of neither Mrs Thatcher nor Mr Blair are unblemished. Many parts of the country still bear the scars of the unemployment her policies brought in the 1980s. The shadow of the Iraq war will always be cast over Mr Blair.

But with both, I believe, the good outweighs the bad. With the current Scottish Government the question is whether the beige outweighs the bland. The inertia outweighs the inaction.

Back in the day I had the privilege to work for the last Labour government, which increasingly looks like it might indeed be the last Labour government.

I worked for Douglas Alexander and Gordon Brown and whatever you may think of them they taught me several important things, including that government is a privilege. That it is public service, a 24/7 business, where every moment is precious and should be cherished and spent wisely.

After 11 years in office, the SNP seems to regard the chore of governing as an inconvenient byproduct of winning elections.

The last Labour government used to be criticised for announcing new spending at least three times, but at least they were actually investing the money.

The equivalent with Ms Sturgeon’s administration is to announce three times things that they might get around to in a few years after a consultation that you, maybe, can see in the distance.

They are like the promises I make to my wife about DIY jobs I’ll do. They sound lavish and ambitious, full of hope, but, in our hearts, we know they will never happen.

There are two conundrums with this Government. Two circles that don’t square. Ms Sturgeon says we must get out of the UK because of ‘Tory austerity’ and then claims to be able to make unprecedented investments in infrastructure.

THOSE statements don’t fit, particularly when her tax increases have raised £500 million less than planned and Westminster will make up the shortfall. Then there is the question of why there is such timidity. The SNP has long loathed and wished to supplant the Labour Party. It has. Where once it was said a donkey with a red rosette could be elected, now an ass with a yellow and black one often is.

In an era of identity politics when people vote on their view of the constitution rather than the competence of the government, the First Minister ought to enjoy the freedom to be radical yet she refuses to embrace the opportunity.

Mrs Thatcher changed where the centre ground of politics is. Mr Blair embraced that and proved the centre ground was not merely a question of splitting the difference, as some think it is.

Other than telling us a second referendum is just around the corner, like all the other things Ms Sturgeon says she will get around to one day – such as improving education, the economy and the health service – her administration is marked by indifference to trying to govern at all.