I made my first intervention in the SNP leadership debate in the columns of The National newspaper in an article published late yesterday.
In it I summarise exactly why the funding mechanisms of Westminster and Holyrood are so different, explaining in the process that Westminster is a currency creator and Holyrood is a currency user. The result is, as I argue:
All the economic odds are stacked against any Scottish government succeeding with the task that it is being given by Westminster under the current devolution settlement.
Westminster politicians like to claim Scotland has problems because the SNP is failing. That is not true. As I, again, say:
The political reality of the moment is that whoever becomes the SNP leader will have to work inside this incredibly rigged political system that has been set up by Westminster to ensure that whoever runs Scotland is bound to fail.
So what needs to be done? I suggest:
This means that just as much as [a new SNP leader] needs to have a convincing plan for independence, they also need to have a convincing plan for devolution. It may even be that one is not possible without the other: Convincing the people of Scotland that its problems can be managed by a government committed to independence would now seem to be a pre-requisite of success for independence.
I then set out what a five point demand for empowering Scotland to make devolution work might be.
It is my hope that amongst the political scrapping serious debate on the Scottish economy might get a look in during this leadership campaign. I will be watching.
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Serious debate do you mean in the SNP or as a whole I cant see that happening as it is a very rare thing to see or hear anything good the Government in Scotland have done in the press or the media all they seem to look for is bad news.
SCOTLAND has “blazed a trail” in areas of health policy, chief medical officer for England Sir Chris Whitty has said.
Just the other day we had this but nowhere could I find any reference to it in the media or the Scottish papers bar one.
No Government will get everything right and should be held to account but at the same time fairness should apply and I must say that will never happen here in Scotland regarding the SNP.
It does seem that the SNP’s prospect of getting a decent leader to replace Nicola Sturgeon is getting bogged down and mired by first a great furore of the “front” runner being a Christian fundamentalist wishing to return to medieval times, or any other candidate that has any hint of charisma or enthusiasm let alone progressive policies to enhance Sctland’s future. No mention yet of the inadequate GERS system of Westminser’s finance to the devolved government and how this can be equitably established or how and if they can get an independence referendum and tackle the vital question of Scotland having its own currency after independence and not still being a lap dog of the Bank of England and English Treasury policies.
I hear rumour that at least one candidate is onto that issue….
I think we might be about to see how much the SNP was a cult of personality or a serious proposition.
I do hope it is the latter.
Looking forward though, Scotland is going to need a lot of domestic investment to realise its potential. In my view the investment needs to be through a domestic currency and a new government has to see such a currency as part of its bid to ‘nation build’. Inward investment might then follow on Scotland’s terms.
You’re right Richard, and the recent industrial relations issues in the public sector have cruelly exposed the limits of devolution, and how in a sense Holyrood is like local government, just a budget-holder, beholden in no small part to Westminster.
What annoys me most is that Scottish Gov ministers from Sturgeon down never cite the economic restrictions which any Scottish Gov has to work within when being interviewed or in response to media assertions or, indeed, in Holyrood debate. On a daily basis we hear claims of catastrophic failures in the NHS in Scotland, yet any quick check on NHS statistics across the UK will show that NHS in Scotland consistently out-performs the others. That ought to be easy enough to state, but nobody ever seems to point out that the NHS across the whole of the UK has been grossly under-funded for at least the last 13 years, or that the devolved nations are dependent on the Barnett Formula for their funding (they can’t issue their own currency and can only borrow funds under tight regulatory limitations and maxima). If the funding for the NHS in England is reduced due to privatisation it impacts the Barnett calculations regardless of the health policies of the devolved governments.
My hope is that a new First Minister will highlight these issues, frequently