The poverty that shames our country

Poverty has been a consistent problem in our country. However, what many people probably don't realise is that the level of poverty in Scotland today is some four times the level that existed in 1968. In the last forty years we have seen a quadrupling in poverty levels. And they call this progress?

The growth in poverty seems to have been spurred by the drive towards neo-liberalism in the 1980s. In 1979, when Margaret Thatcher's Tory government was first elected, child poverty stood at one in ten. By 1997 when the Conservative's left office to be replaced by the new Tories of New Labour the levels were one in three. It is true that child poverty has come down under Labour, but only to one in four. After a decade in power, New Labour has barely shifted the levels of child poverty from 33% to 25%.

However far from being shame faced about presiding over such levels of child poverty, Jack McConnell was actually on Radio Scotland crawing about this "achievement". He then went on to utter some mundanities about how his "founding principle" was to deal with the inequalities that exist in society. Given the one in four kids in poverty in Scotland today - not to mention the one in five pensioners in poverty as well - it seems pretty clear that Jack is able to put his founding principles on the backburner.

He then went on to utter some nonsense about how with Labour you get a party that is committed to combatting inequality whilst with the SNP you get a party that is committed to constitutional change ahead of this aim. Well I have news for Mr McConnell. Independence and fighting poverty are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, I would say that it is the fight against inequality that drives me most in politics. Scottish independence is not about changing flags. Nor is it an end in itself. Certainly I will be delighted the day we celebrate independence, but for me it is because that it empowers us to tackle the inequalities that exist in our country that motivate me to seek to end the union.

Consider this - Scotland is the only country in the world to have discovered oil and seen poverty actually increase amongst its people, other than Iraq (which had very unique circumstances, such as a decade of sanctions imposed against them). Do we actually think that would have been the case with independence?

Only with independence will we ever be able to start making real inroads into the poverty that blights Scotland and end the ludicrous nature of a resource rich country with such obscene levels of poverty in our midst.