John Smith wanted to serve his country – the SNP has only wanted to serve itself

It is now 30 years since John Smith, the best prime minister Britain never had, passed away suddenly aged just 55 years old. A Scot at the heart of Westminster, an intellect and a wit, he was loved deeply and broadly across the political spectrum.

The last line of his last speech, given at a gala dinner to raise funds for the European elections on May 11 1994, is often quoted. In thanking guests for attending the dinner he said: “We will do our best to reward your faith in us, but please give us the opportunity to serve our country. That is all we ask.”

Over the past few days, I’ve been revisiting many of his speeches as I’ve been pondering the Scottish Parliament’s 25th anniversary, which we also mark this week. John Smith was of course a powerful advocate of devolution, as he was of the European Union, social chapter rights and broad democratic reform. He was making the case to scrap the House of Lords and to replace it with an elected second chamber four decades ago; for a freedom of information act and for a bill of rights.

He argued for a charter of environmental rights that makes the polluter pay – while I was in primary school and Margaret Thatcher reigned. “Sustainable development” is, he argued, “about the security of our planet, its viability as a human habitat in which the world’s people and future generations can live healthy and fulfilling lives. Nothing can be more basic than the air we breathe and the water we drink.”

I wonder sometimes whether we do him a disservice by boiling down so many brilliant speeches and interventions into one often rehearsed phrase, but there is something about the nobility of asking for the opportunity to serve that has stood the test of time.

Revisiting that final speech, there are a couple of other lines that stand out for me: “We believe in the idealism of our cause, but we also believe it is not enough to be idle idealists who think we should just announce policies and that hope somehow people will come to them.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of “idle idealists” as we both celebrate the Scottish Parliament’s 25th anniversary and put its achievements under the cold glare of the spotlight. I’d argue the parliament’s tale is one of two parts. Part one runs from 1999 to 2011 and tells the story of a parliament born with high expectation of what it might achieve, and a renewed sense of civic pride and possibility quickly tested by the death of another leading light of Labour, Donald Dewar, Scotland’s first first minister.

The scandal surrounding the Holyrood building – years behind schedule, 10 times over budget – overshadowed many early enormous and transformational pieces of legislation in areas like land reform, ending feudal tenure; mental health, effectively closing asylums and placing an assumption in supporting people to live in the community; and the smoking ban.

When Labour lost the 2007 election by one seat by the smallest of margins, Scottish politics was forever changed. Alex Salmond became first minister and had to work across the parliament to secure votes to pass his programme in a collegiate manner that a proportionally elected chamber, sitting in a semicircle together – as opposed to a sword’s length apart – was designed to achieve. In this period, many SNP promises came to pass: the scrapping of tuition fees and bridge tolls, and free prescriptions. It is a hallmark of devolution that is has proven far easier to scrap, ban and give away than reform.

Part two of our story begins in 2011, when the SNP won a historic, electoralformula-busting majority. Alex Salmond was returned as an all-powerful politician and the UK Government had to cede to the SNP’S mandate for a referendum.

This was the period to do what I’ll casually refer to as “the hard stuff ” – like for example reforming the National Health Service so that it was fit to respond to the challenges of an ageing population, rather than the plight of disease and destitution it was founded to face in the 1940s.

With a thumping majority and rising support in the polls for the best part of 10 years, this was the time to, say, modernise the justice system – to take on the issue of the not proven verdict or indeed juryless trials. It’s a story of much political power being used to such little end.

This, of course, is because the SNP’S “theory of government” was less the opportunity to serve and more the opportunity to build support for independence. As was the SNP’S right. As is its defining purpose.

This is not a critique, just an observation that simply sighs; just as it does in memory of John Smith, with the possibility of what might have been.

The SNP’S ‘theory of government’ is to build support for independence

REFORMS: Labour leader John Smith, who died 30 years ago, said more than ‘idle idealism’ was needed for effective governance.