A wish list perhaps but Sturgeon at least offers a vision
ATOXIC mist of inertia and ennui had begun to gather around Scottish Nationalism before Nicola Sturgeon laid out her government’s annual legislative programme this week. Following the loss of 21 Westminster seats in June’s General Election it seemed that only the most ardent nationalists were talking about independence as if it were still a living thing and not merely the fond remembrance of an intense but fleeting romance.
Into the void stepped an assortment of Tory backwoodsmen to tell us the election results signalled the end of independence and any further talk of “a divisive referendum”. Such wishful thinking cheerfully ignored some inconvenient truths, not the least of which was that in two successive Westminster elections the party that seeks above all else to leave the UK had gained more seats than all of their pro-UK opponents combined. It had however, been a dismal campaign by the SNP whose strategists will be grateful to Theresa May for an operation that seemed like it was being steered by Gerald Ratner. In the absence of a positive rallying cry sections of the Yes movement began to squabble and, though this was exaggerated to a ridiculous degree by pro-UK commentators, aspects of it did leave a bitter taste. In particular, the hounding by an SNP scarecrow element of several high-profile figures who had campaigned for independence but who were not supporters of the party was troubling. Amongst the aggressors there is clearly a failure to acknowledge there simply aren’t enough SNP supporters in Scotland to deliver independence on their own. If self-determination is to be gained it will require the hearts and minds of many who don’t believe the SNP is above criticism.
The announcement of Ms Sturgeon’s legislative programme therefore is most welcome. Sure, it is in an embryonic form and may be dismissed by opponents as a wish list but then at this stage it doesn’t purport to be anything else. Only the most tribal of Labour supporters would deny the First Minister’s programme is anything other than dynamic, aspirational and innovative. More significantly, it is under-pinned by a commitment to making the playing field level for the many in this country whose lives have been blighted by playing to rules set by the rich and the privileged. If that means impelling these gilded few to pay a little extra for their anointed existence then so be it; it’s long overdue. Dealing with the caprices of middle-class taxpayers when contemplating tax rises will always be a concern but these people look set to have far greater issues on their minds as the insane reality of Brexit in the hands of the three blind mice begins to materialise.
When the leader of the Scottish Tories is reduced to a cartoon response to your legislative programme you know you’re onto a winner. Ruth Davidson called it “a programme to raise taxes and keep robbers out of jail”. She should know all about that. Her party has been keeping the UK’s biggest robbers – the architects of the 2008 banking crisis – out of jail for almost a decade. And if any UK Government was to raise taxes to 99 per cent across the board for the next 50 years for our richest citizens and landowners, it still wouldn’t touch the sides of the quantum in revenues that these people have been dodging for decades. Put simply, you can’t tax these so-called patriots enough.
Other developments over the summer months have aligned propitiously for the SNP Government. The Tories have done absolutely nothing with the gains they made in Scotland at the General Election and May’s local authority elections. Indeed the task for Ms Davidson in the years ahead will not be to make their voices heard but to find a way to shut many of them up. To an unlovely symphony of banjo music they seem determined to achieve that impossible thing: making Nigel Farage look like an incorrigible liberal.
The sudden resignation of Kezia Dugdale has also reminded us of how reduced in stature the Labour Party in Scotland has become. It looked increasingly towards the end as though Ms Dugdale had simply found the folds of the Union flag around her party to be an intolerable bind. Now, barring a major upset, it seems Anas Sarwar will succeed her. Mr Sarwar is a capable enough politician, but he will never recover from so loudly proclaiming his support for the wrong horse in his party’s national leadership election. And the fact his campaign is being backed by a rich Labour donor who didn’t think Ms Dugdale was sufficiently pro-UK shows the party in Scotland is not yet ready to move beyond its ruinous Better Together sophistry.
The opening of the Queensferry Crossing and the accolade of Scotland being crowned the planet’s most beautiful country may reasonably be regarded as relatively unimportant in the quest to improve life for the many. Yet, they convey something that speaks of health, wellbeing and vitality. These prizes were announced in the same week the Tories’ plans to tackle immigration post-Brexit were leaked in a Home Office report. The Tories now want to end the free movement of labour immediately after Brexit and to make it more difficult for EU citizens to get into the country at all. Here there is nothing of health or of wellbeing or of vitality; only decay, fear and disintegration.
Time will tell if we ought to greet the Scottish Government’s legislative programme with a sense of expectation rather than merely hope. There remain significant omissions. I’d still like to see a Minister with cabinet responsibility for Glasgow, our biggest and most important city and the one with Scotland’s most embedded patterns of deprivation and health inequality. And there should have been moves to end the tax advantages of independent schools. This programme though offers us a vision of a Scotland I want to live in: enlightened; inclusive and striving to reverse the destructive influence of unearned privilege and false entitlement. It is in stark contrast to the dystopia that Theresa May’s Brexiters have in store for the rest of the UK.
There remain significant omissions. I’d still like to see a Minister for Glasgow in the cabinet