‘Power grab’ fights sell us all short
The more we see of pointless fights between the Scottish and UK governments, the more apparent it is that the cities and regions of Scotland need greater autonomy to act on their own behalf.
Apportioning blame for each of these word wars would require a team of full-time peace monitors but the end result is that economic opportunities are being squandered on the altar of arguments about “power-grabs” while the world passes us by.
To take the latest example, there are several parts of Scotland which see freeports as an opportunity rather than a threat. They want to compete to be one of the designated areas within the UK for that status, in the interests of attracting jobs and investment.
If they could act on their own account, they would undoubtedly do so. However, they also have to work with the Scottish Government on other fronts so that freedom to get on with it is constrained by pragmatism.
Freeports are clearly a policy of the UK government which flows from Brexit. Whether one loathes the former or opposed the latter is, at this point in time, entirely irrelevant. If freeports offer an opportunity, then let’s grab it and make it work for the Scottish economy.
Other parts of the UK are falling over themselves to access the new structural funds while we argue about whether it is a matter of national pride and constitutional necessity for everything to be channelled through Edinburgh – which it never was before. It is all deeply self-harmful and the price will be paid for decades to come unless common sense, based on minimal mutual respect, begins to prevail.