laid Cymru representative for South West Wales, to write a piece for her blog. Because I am being lazy I am going to just reproduce it here, but if you want to read it at her site then you can get it at:Anyway, it is a piece about where Scotland is going with the SNP government and is perhaps quite timely following the weekend's SNP conference in Aviemore.
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Anyone who knows their Shakespeare will be aware of the question posed in Macbeth; “stands Scotland where it did?”
If someone had fallen asleep before the Scottish Parliament election this year and awoke today and posed that same question, the answer would have to be a resounding no. You would need to have been asleep not to have noticed the changes taking place in Scotland.
The Scottish writer and artist Alasdair Gray once wrote “work as if you were in the early days of a better nation”, and our hypothetical Rip Van Winkle would be able to wake from their slumber to find that by virtue of the election of an SNP government these are the early days of a better nation.
The SNP is already pursuing its distinctive social democratic agenda, designed to bring about a more prosperous, fair and socially just Scotland. For my part it is a huge honour to serve in the Scottish Parliament at a time when we have the first ever SNP government. Indeed, not only is this the first ever SNP government, I would contend that it is the first ever Scottish government. Our predecessors in the shape of the Labour-Liberal pact which was in place for eight years could be accused of many things, but acting as a government is not really one of them. Their local council mentality would only ever allow them to be described as an administration at best.
However, since Alex Salmond and his cabinet were put in place we have seen a series of announcements that are impressive in their intent and reach. In just five months announcements have been made that will see the abolition of tuition fees for university students, and a return to the principle of free education; plans to follow the Welsh example and abolish prescription charges for all Scottish citizens; one of the most ambitious targets for carbon reduction by the middle of this century of any country on the planet; the creation of a new entrants scheme for Scottish farming; a review of the right to buy policy in council housing, with the suggestion that this will be scrapped entirely for newly built homes; two local accident and emergency departments earmarked for closure have been saved; a decision that no more private prisons will be built in Scotland; work begun on creating a viable alternative to New Labour’s PFI madness; the most ambitious programme of railway infrastructure improvements for decades; a decision to allow asylum seekers the same rights in higher education as the rest of Scotland’s people; the freezing of the unfair council tax with a view to replacing it with a fairer local income tax based on the ability to pay; and a summit held to discuss nuclear disarmament – the first ever government organised summit in the UK to discuss such.
This indicates a government that is progressive and outward looking. It reflects a programme of a real government rather than that of an administration following orders from London.
This is not to say that we do not face difficulties. The SNP are a minority government, with 47 members of the Scottish Parliament out of a total of 129. The maths clearly indicates that it will be difficult to pursue some of our agenda. That will mean that, on occasion, we will have to build loose alliances with other parties on a one off, policy by policy basis.
Furthermore, the comprehensive spending review conducted at Westminster has announced that the SNP government can expect to get the lowest annual increase to the Scottish block grant since the advent of devolution, with a miserly 0.5% increase.
This makes things financially tight for the SNP government, but in John Swinney MSP, we have a Cabinet Secretary for Finance who is equipped with all the abilities that his predecessors have lacked necessary for the task at hand, and I remain confident that the government will be able to cope with this financial settlement.
So, things are going well just now. I remain confident that they will remain to go that way so long as the SNP remains in power. The challenge for the SNP is to ensure that after four years we win the next Scottish Parliament election in 2011.
My hope is that when we do so, it will be the first elections to a Scottish Parliament in an independent Scotland. The SNP government has launched a “national conversation” which it wants all citizens and all of civic society to engage in about the future constitutional direction of our country. We will clearly set out our belief that Scotland can be a hugely better country to live in with independence, and I think we can convince the people of the merits of that case.
The plan is to hold a referendum in 2010, where we will provide the Scottish people with the chance to move to independence. If we can hold that referendum, then my hopes that the SNP election victory in 2011 is in the context of Scottish independence stand a very real chance of being fulfilled.
If someone had fallen asleep before the Scottish Parliament election this year and awoke today and posed that same question, the answer would have to be a resounding no. You would need to have been asleep not to have noticed the changes taking place in Scotland.
The Scottish writer and artist Alasdair Gray once wrote “work as if you were in the early days of a better nation”, and our hypothetical Rip Van Winkle would be able to wake from their slumber to find that by virtue of the election of an SNP government these are the early days of a better nation.
The SNP is already pursuing its distinctive social democratic agenda, designed to bring about a more prosperous, fair and socially just Scotland. For my part it is a huge honour to serve in the Scottish Parliament at a time when we have the first ever SNP government. Indeed, not only is this the first ever SNP government, I would contend that it is the first ever Scottish government. Our predecessors in the shape of the Labour-Liberal pact which was in place for eight years could be accused of many things, but acting as a government is not really one of them. Their local council mentality would only ever allow them to be described as an administration at best.
However, since Alex Salmond and his cabinet were put in place we have seen a series of announcements that are impressive in their intent and reach. In just five months announcements have been made that will see the abolition of tuition fees for university students, and a return to the principle of free education; plans to follow the Welsh example and abolish prescription charges for all Scottish citizens; one of the most ambitious targets for carbon reduction by the middle of this century of any country on the planet; the creation of a new entrants scheme for Scottish farming; a review of the right to buy policy in council housing, with the suggestion that this will be scrapped entirely for newly built homes; two local accident and emergency departments earmarked for closure have been saved; a decision that no more private prisons will be built in Scotland; work begun on creating a viable alternative to New Labour’s PFI madness; the most ambitious programme of railway infrastructure improvements for decades; a decision to allow asylum seekers the same rights in higher education as the rest of Scotland’s people; the freezing of the unfair council tax with a view to replacing it with a fairer local income tax based on the ability to pay; and a summit held to discuss nuclear disarmament – the first ever government organised summit in the UK to discuss such.
This indicates a government that is progressive and outward looking. It reflects a programme of a real government rather than that of an administration following orders from London.
This is not to say that we do not face difficulties. The SNP are a minority government, with 47 members of the Scottish Parliament out of a total of 129. The maths clearly indicates that it will be difficult to pursue some of our agenda. That will mean that, on occasion, we will have to build loose alliances with other parties on a one off, policy by policy basis.
Furthermore, the comprehensive spending review conducted at Westminster has announced that the SNP government can expect to get the lowest annual increase to the Scottish block grant since the advent of devolution, with a miserly 0.5% increase.
This makes things financially tight for the SNP government, but in John Swinney MSP, we have a Cabinet Secretary for Finance who is equipped with all the abilities that his predecessors have lacked necessary for the task at hand, and I remain confident that the government will be able to cope with this financial settlement.
So, things are going well just now. I remain confident that they will remain to go that way so long as the SNP remains in power. The challenge for the SNP is to ensure that after four years we win the next Scottish Parliament election in 2011.
My hope is that when we do so, it will be the first elections to a Scottish Parliament in an independent Scotland. The SNP government has launched a “national conversation” which it wants all citizens and all of civic society to engage in about the future constitutional direction of our country. We will clearly set out our belief that Scotland can be a hugely better country to live in with independence, and I think we can convince the people of the merits of that case.
The plan is to hold a referendum in 2010, where we will provide the Scottish people with the chance to move to independence. If we can hold that referendum, then my hopes that the SNP election victory in 2011 is in the context of Scottish independence stand a very real chance of being fulfilled.
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