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SARAH BOYACK MSPMARGARET CURRAN MPTREVOR DAVIESKEZIA DUGDALE MSPCAROL FINLAYMIKE FREUNDENBERGDUNCAN HOTHERSALLDANIEL JOHNSON
FOREWORD BYJOHANN LAMONT MSP
RICHARD KERLEYCATRIONA MUNROMAUREEN PARNELLANAS SARWAR MPDREW SMITH MSPFRANCIS STUARTKATHERINE TREBECKDIARMID WEIR
AFTERWORD BYIAIN GRAY MSP
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Scottish Fabians is part of The Fabian Society, Britains oldest political
think tank. Since 1884 the Society has played a central role indeveloping political ideas and public policy on the left. Through a wide
range of publications and events the society influences political and
public thinking, but also provides a space for broad and open-minded
debate.
The Society is alone among think tanks in being a democratically-
constituted membership organisation, with almost 7,000 members. It
was one of the original founders of the Labour Party and is
constitutionally affiliated to the party. It is however editorially,
organisationally and financially independent and works with a wide
range of partners of all political persuasions and none.
In 2012 Scottish Fabians relaunched with a programme of members-
led discussions, events and publications focusing on an exploration of
vision, values and policy. It held its inaugural AGM in November 2012
which elected its first Executive Committee to take forward an exciting
programme of work.
Join Scottish Fabians today
Every member of the Fabian Society resident in Scotland is
automatically a member of Scottish Fabians. To join the Fabian
Society (standard rate 3 per month / unwaged 1.50 per month)
please visitwww.fabians.org.uk/members/join.
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Contributors 5
Foreword 7
Johann Lamont MSP
Common Cause 8
Trevor Davies, Carol Finlay, Mike Freundenberg,
Maureen Parnell, Diarmid Weir
Enterprise as an act of public service 14
Kezia Dugdale MSP
From trickle-down growth to collective prosperity 20
Katherine Trebeck, Francis Stuart (Oxfam Scotland)
Changing Scotland requires changing Holyrood 27
Drew Smith MSP
Delivering social justice through economic change 33
Anas Sarwar MP
Devolution as an economic ambition 33
Daniel Johnson, Duncan Hothersall
Public services could we do better? 44
Richard Kerley
Double devolution: devo mark two 52
Sarah Boyack MSPLabour, Europe and Scotland 61
Catriona Munro
A choice between progress and division 66
Margaret Curran MP
Afterword 71
Iain Gray MSP
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Scottish Fabians
w www.scottishfabians.org.ukt @scottishfabiansPublications & editorial: Duncan Hothersall
This book, like all Fabian Society publications, represents not the
collective views of Scottish Fabians or the Fabian Society but only the
views of the authors. The responsibility of Scottish Fabians is limited toapproving its publications as being worthy of consideration within the
Labour movement.
Scottish Fabians Executive Committee 2012 13Daniel Johnson, Convener
April Cumming
Catriona Munro
Tom York
Ann McKechin MP
Duncan Hothersall
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Sarah Boyack MSPis Shadow Cabinet Secretary for LocalGovernment and Planning.Margaret Curran MPis Shadow Secretary of State for Scotlandand Labour MP for Glasgow East; she was previously MSP for
Glasgow Baillieston and a Scottish Minister from 2000 to 2007.
Professor Trevor Daviesis a former TV producer and councillor,now professor at Glasgow University, who writes and speaks
about bringing values and narrative back to the heart of politics.
Kezia Dugdale MSPis Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Educationand Lifelong Learning.
Carol Finlayis a former chair of the Scottish Executive Committeeof the Labour Party, now Senior Assistant to Alistair Darling MP,
having previously worked in human resource management.
Mike Freundenbergis an artist, writer and musician, socialentrepreneur and non-governmental sector professional, activewithin Labour, the Fabians & Unite since the 1970s.
Iain Gray MSPis Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance.Duncan Hothersallis on the Scottish Fabians Executive, is a small
business owner and is a past director of the Equality Network.
Daniel Johnsonis Convener of the Scottish Fabians, co-owns anestablished Edinburgh business and is a community campaigner
in the south of the city.
Professor Richard Kerleyis an academic and consultant whoresearches, advises and writes on public service and public
policy.
Johann Lamont MSPis Leader of the Scottish Labour Party.Catriona Munrois a lawyer specialising in EU law, previously in
Brussels and in London, and now in Scotland.
Scottish Fabians 5
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Ambitions for Scotland
Maureen Parnellis a social scientist at Napier University, teachingenthusiastic students from every background, all concerned
with the pressing need for political change.
Anas Sarwar MPis Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Partyand co-ordinator of the referendum campaign.
Drew Smith MSPis a former member of the Scottish TUCGeneral Council and Labour MSP for Glasgow since 2011.
Francis Stuartis Research and Policy Adviser for Oxfam Scotlandsdomestic poverty programme and is currently taking forward
Oxfams work on the Humankind Index and Our Economy.Katherine Trebeckis Global Research Policy Adviser for Oxfamlooking at ways to develop a socially sustainable and just
economy.
Diarmid Weiris a former General Practitioner, now economicsresearcher, teacher and blogger aiming to expose the reality
behind the numbers.
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Johann Lamont MSP
The debate about Scotland's future is dominating our politics at the
moment as we build towards a referendum on independence. My
frustration is that that debate is too narrow, too focused on whether
we want to remain part of the United Kingdom or not.
I believe the debate about Scotland's future could, and should, be so
much richer.
The nationalists have a single idea. They get to put it to the test next
year. But the radical voices of the left have many ideas. These ideas
have changed people's lives for the better, and I am confident they will
again. Those are the ideas I am interested in hearing.
I want Scotland's future to be a battle of these ideas, competing
visions about how we transform an education system that creates
opportunity for all; build a sustainable health service which delivers the
kind of care we would want for our sick, our vulnerable and ourelderly; deliver a justice system that ensures our streets are safe; and
construct a new economy that allows all of us to share in future
prosperity.
The Fabian Society has been always been a melting pot for radical
ideas and has helped shaped Labour's past. In taking forward this
project, I am sure Scottish Fabians will be central to delivering the
radical change we aspire to for Scotland.
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Trevor Davies, Carol Finlay, Mike Freundenberg,Maureen Parnell, Diarmid Weir
We are at a fork in the road.
We have been beguiled along this gilded path only now to find, in
anger and dismay, that the place at which we stand is where the gap
between rich and poor is the greatest for a hundred years, where
austerity threatens to rend our social fabric for generations, and wheredivisions between classes, races, regions and nations are being
widened, accidentally and deliberately.
We have a choice. We can continue, through timidity, or lack of
imagination, or preoccupation with the day-to-day, along the crowded
path which may still deny to every citizen the chance of a good life of
their own choosing. Or we can take the adventurous path which
delves into our core values and, from them, begins to configure a
different Scotland.
The present is stark. In families everywhere, parents, if they can find
work, are working harder than ever before and yet are falling behind
in a struggle to provide a decent life for themselves and their children.
Their living standards, flat from 2000 but propped up by give-away
credit, slumped from 20081and will do so for the foreseeable future.
Those same parents, giving their working lives to a local factory, now
find the owners are an anonymous off-shore fund doing deals that forefficiency require the factory to shut. Without work they fall back
unwillingly onto state support. But the state, its revenue destroyed by
tax scams, is slashing its support. The determined single parent of two
schoolgirls studying at home for a specialist science degree so she can
better provide for her growing girls, reading at night, writing essays at
the kitchen table in school hours, paying her own tuition fees and
1 The Resolution Foundation 2013
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living on the margin, now faces losing her home and the end of her
ambitions, because the girls have the luxury of a bedroom each and
the government wants therefore to take 40.00 from her support
every month.
In our low wage, low skill, low productivity, de-unionised economy,
the young face a future less prosperous, less certain and more
dangerous than their parents. Despite their efforts to keep up, more
people live in poor health, more children grow up in poverty. Many eat
anonymous adulterated food. Nearly a quarter are in permanent debt.
And most of us fail to properly acknowledge that we all live beyond
what the planet can provide. Yet, still, we are nagged by a feeling that
what we do buy does little to support its producers, but instead puts
yet another pound into the collecting boxes of the corporate rich. In a
time of debt and disruption, 6,000 hand bags and 245,000 cars are
best-selling products.
This is not the politics of envy, as apologists for the old order claim. If
we confront those disconnections, it can become instead the politics
of justice. Because at last the economists, the political theorists, the
business experts, their cheerleaders in our far-from-free press, whohave persuaded us all over forty years of the truth of feudal dogmas
of trickle-down economics and the unfettered free market, have been
found out. The ground they believed to be firm is daily shifting under
their feet, and ours, to a point of crisis.
Yet we fumble for new foundations. At the time of the last Great
Depression prior to war, Antonio Gramsci wrote:The crisis consists
precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born;
in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.2
The morbid symptoms of our day mean we live in a time of pulling
apart. The bad economics which make the many pay for the rampages
of the few, the dreamt-of borders and separations of either the UKIP
or SNP sort, the blame placed on the young, poor and sick for their
youth, poverty or sickness, the demonisation of the foreigner, whether
2 Selections from the Prison Notebooks
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refugee or worker these are divisions of a depth and strength weve
not seen since the aftermath of the Great War.3
It is time for the new to be built.
We already have the foundations laid in our deepest values and sense
of right and wrong. Our values con front and resist the fools gold
which tells us there is no such thing as society, that the workplace
must be ruled by profit alone, that citizens are best treated as
consumers, that anyone unlike us is likely to be dangerous and that
each community should be bounded according to its wealth.
So let us, instead, speak of pulling together, of the relationships we
have with each other and of the values we find in them. The doctor in
her surgery who, knowing that passive patients dont get well as fast,
instead of simply giving out another pill, chooses instead to help the
patient acquire the tools to own his own health, taking responsibility
for his own healthy living, while she offers medical expertise when
needed. The company directors who sustain their worldwide company
over decades of boom and bust by knowing that their employees work
better when they share in the company, when they are trusted for
their knowledge and loyalty, when they have power to decide
themselves the best way to do their work. The neighbourhood which
turns out in good numbers and of all ages to clean, repair and
maintain a canal bank as a wider public resource and a thin green belt
for plants and animals.
Those values of solidarity, of responsibility, of common cause are the
foundations on which we have built and must build again. So we look
to a Scotland where our conditions of life are shaped by each of usowning our own work, health, culture and learning; sharing our
common well-being, risks and security; and belonging fully to a
responsive democracy.
The idea of ownership has been colonised by the right to mean the
simply transactional, like personal vouchers to buy a place in a school,
or to frame a justification for vested interests, as in the natural
3 Danny Dorling Fair Play 2012
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supremacy of the rights of business owners or land owners over those
of customers or workers or tenants or the environment.
For us, though, ownership is about responsibility and relationships,
about the ability and capacity of individuals, families and groups to
determine their own lives. It is about pursuing and owning our own
life, liberty and happiness; about resisting those outside forces and
vested interests, both economic and political, along with the social
stresses of inequality4that would deny them to us.
So to call for conditions where each of us may own our own work,
health, culture and learning is far-reaching and challenging. Significant
change is needed: corporate governance and work practices to alloweveryone to take responsibility for the way in which they work and
contribute to the creation of wealth; the income and knowledge and
confidence to take charge of our own health and well-being; the skills
and leadership to reinvigorate the places we live and work in; the time
and freedom to create and share a full cultural life, the life of the soul;
and the lifelong capacity to learn, develop skills, enjoy learning for its
own sake and what it can bring.
Such change will not come from government doing stuff to others. It
will come from the state acting as a convener of change, gathering
and nurturing the relationships, and providing the powers, to
individuals and organisations, to do it for themselves.
Individual liberty and well-being do not derive from individualism
certainly not from the dog-eat-dog, beggar-thy-neighbour, free market
individualism that portrays poverty as a result of laziness and welfare
as akin to free-loading. Rather they derive from equality andcommonality. They grow from strengthening our shared well-being
and our shared security and managing our shared risks. By sharing the
risks of unforeseen illness we lessen its impact on each and on all. By
sharing the risks to our security, from external threat, from crime, from
unemployment or bereavement, we reduce its cost and increase its
4 The Spirit Level Wilkinson and Pickett 2009
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effectiveness for each of us. By sharing our well-being we ensure it is
available to all.
But that essential sense of sharing has weakened under the pressures
of individualism and nationalism. Our shared relationships, whether at
local, Scottish, UK, European or global levels, need re-articulation. They
also need strengthening. It will be a far-reaching and challenging task.
The relationships of shared well-being, shared risk and shared security
need gathering and nurturing, re-examining, re-enlivening, reinforcing
and re-resourcing if they are to become meaningful again.
We pride ourselves on our democracy. Yet few on its receiving end
would claim it is responsive; much less that they have a tangiblerelationship with it and with each other through it. Most would say it
is dominated by vested interests and powerful voices. The urgent
question for us is how to bring an equality of voice into our institutions
and processes, enabling decisions to be reached through reciprocal
understandings rather than through the exercise of power or of
expert status.
At the heart of our values we now discover the importance of
relationships, of governing through the creation and support of
productive relationships.5It is time to end the price-based, consumer-
not-citizen, dependency model of government and the easy kiss-me-
quick retail politics of a benefit here, a tax-break there. Our foundation
stone of governance as relationships is open-ended, complex,
uncertain, hard to summarise in official reports, but more enduring
and more egalitarian. More important than what we try to do is how
we and others do it, more about process than objective, more
about means than ends, about embedding our values of owning,
sharing and belonging, of solidarity and common cause into the
processes that shape our relationships. For the ends are about
providing for every citizen the chance of a good life of their own
choosing, not of ours.
But notice the word every. Theres the challenge.
5 see IPPR The Relational State 2013
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This is not just a task for government, though government is part of it
and we admire the experiments under way in Edinburgh towards a
co-operative council. More than that, it is a task for common actions
that step outside or devolve beyond government and yet contribute toour shared well-being. The energy project in Dundee which brings
consumers together to use the power of their combined purchases to
lower their energy bills. The Fife Diet campaign to restore integrity and
localism to Fifes food supply.
Devolution for us is not an end in itself. It is certainly not a stepping
stone on the path to separate nationhood. Nor is it simply breaking off
a bit or a bit more or a bit less of Westminster and Whitehall and
relocating to Edinburgh. We see devolution as a process, a means. A
means of placing power where it properly belongs, whether that is
European, UK, Scottish, local or individual; a process which constantly
seeks to take social, economic and political power downwards until it
settles at its most effective level. So we uphold the values of
devolution, which brought significant parliamentary powers to our
nation, and seek to extend those values beyond the Scottish
parliament and government, exploring new forms of common actionand government that place responsibilities and powers in the hands of
the many, not the few.
And, therefore, we seek a Scottish Parliament which reaches up to
grasp fully its ambition as a legislature, setting standards and
enhancing our rights and freedoms. We also want it to shed its daily
ministerial authority over most government services and to disperse
them to local levels where the paths of information and control are
shorter and where productive alliances between users and supplierscan govern their provision. We want it to encourage and support
forms of common action outside and beyond government. Untidy,
diverse and uncontrolled it will certainly be, and to accept that is hard,
but we believe it to be the right and adventurous path.
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Kezia Dugdale MSP
Ask me anything. Anything you like at all. Dont worry
about whether its something to do with the Council, or the
Westminster Government Whatever it is Ill do my best to
answer and if I dont know the answer, Ill find out for you
and get back in touch.
It was hard work breaking the ice with this group of despondent
young people at the youth centre in Central Edinburgh. Aged between
16 and 21, they all had varied experiences of the education system and
different outlooks on life.
One soul ventured: When will there be jobs? and somehow spoke
for them all.
Since the crash, unemployment has spiralled and much of the
discourse has focused around the monthly rises and dips in the
unemployment numbers. When the commentators got bored of that,
or struggled to find their own headline in the numbers, they began to
explore the growing phenomenon of underemployment. Latest figures
suggest that 10.6% of the population in Scotland are underemployed and by that we mean they are either too qualified for the jobs they
are in, or desperately looking for more hours. Its an issue that
predominantly affects women and has a dramatic impact on in-work
poverty. Itis a problem compounded by welfare cuts and rising living
costs.
Now the media are rightly obsessed with the notion of zero hour
contracts. Companies recruit staff on contracts of employment that
dont guarantee any actual work. In consequence, people of all ages
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disappear from the unemployment statistics without gaining the
benefit of secure paid employment. Newspapers carry stories of
employees arriving at huge warehouses in the early hours of the
morning only to be told they have to wait in the canteen until thereswork to be done clocking on only when the conveyor belt starts
moving.
In our desperate attempt to make the statistics better we've confused
this type of exploitation as employment. In fact our governments have
encouraged it.
The story of unemployment, underemployment and poorterms and
conditions paints a very clear picture for me of a job market that it isbroken. The response from governments of all hues is to invest more in
attracting big multinational companies to set up in areas of high
unemployment. Huge public sums subsidise the building of
warehouses and factories housing poor quality jobs and feed the tax
avoiding habits of the multinationals running them.
It doesnt have to be like this, and Labour politicians have long argued
the case for a good, responsible capitalism. A number of Scottish MSPs
and MPs also make a compelling case for using the power of public
procurement to drive up employment standards which I fully support
tying public cash to a limited list of the decent thing to do. Pay your
tax and a living wage, abandon zero hour contracts and commit to
hiring young people and the public cash will be yours.
But must we always barter with the big guys? Or can we imagine a
different economy, built on home grown businesses that pride
themselves on being decent employers, rooted in the communities thatthey employ as well as buy and sell from.
To drive such a dramatic shift in how our economy develops requires a
change of culture, and I would argue that our working culture is
perhaps our biggest obstacle as a nation.
Our shared history and identity provides substantial evidence of the
pride we take in public service, but our disdain for, and distrust of,
those who choose to make their own money.
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There is something about our culture which tells us that to make any
substantial money of your own is avarice. That such an aspiration is for
the already well heeled and those of a right wing persuasion.
Perhaps thats because for too long weve witnessed governments
incentivise business growth with combinations of tax cuts, golden
handshakes and deregulation. All sit ill at ease with our shared values,
but need it be the only way?
Could we aspire to be a more enterprising nation built on our values of
public service? A place where wealth is created by the toil of those in
secure, well paid work. A place where wealth is shared by those who
built it. A place where running a successful business is not somethingyou do for yourself, but for your community?
This has to start with the next generation, people young enough to
strain against the prevailing culture in order to drive its development.
What they need is a combination of practical skills and the confidence
to jump.
The statistics show there are reasons to be optimistic about the future
of entrepreneurship within young people. In 2012 the GlobalEntrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for Scotland reported that plans for
new-start businesses are at their highest level in a decade and up 6%
on 2010. The reasons attributed to this growth include a jump in start-
up activity by graduates. It sounds like good progress until you realise
that just 0.5% of those who graduated in 2011/2012 started out
employing themselves.
So how do we change this?
The Practicalities
As we all know, it begins in education. Our colleges and universities
are centres of academic excellence. Our identity places a high value on
education as the great equalizer. A good education always remains a
pathway out of poverty.
Yet a good education in this global market hasnt always equalled
work, as the unemployment statistics demonstrate. This leads some to
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a debate about work-readiness. Do our institutions equip our young
people with the skills for the workplace? We obsess about the degree
to which industry should design education and all the time we seek to
perfect a supply chain for someone elses business.
Should schools, colleges and universities devote more time to the
practicalities of setting up your own business? What are rates and how
do you pay them? How do you keep yourself on the right side of the
HMRC? How do you digitize, market, pitch? Turnover vs profit? Recruit
to grow? Balance risk?
These are just the fundamentals, which are no doubt found in every
business course. But if we can embed them into all courses and notjust as a modular element, we can begin to really shift attitudes to
entrepreneurship. It simply cant be just "todays the day well learn
how to set up a business." It has to be inherent in the course design
and structure, and demonstrated consistently that an entrepreneurial
career is a real option for students. Students like them.
Our colleges know this, having turned out generations of mechanics,
joiners, hairdressers, fitness instructors. College principals know that it
is here that the future lies, and they are committed to that journey
knowing they are many obstacles along the way.
It would be wrong, however, to assume these skills can simply be
taught. Its not about textbook application leading to success. It is
knowledge applied with attitude. An attitude of confidence, self-belief
and ambition.
The GEM study has called on universities to work to nurture the
entrepreneurial spark that is developing in graduates by enhancing
their provision of enterprise activities for their alumni. Suggestions
include coaching facilities for alumni; opportunities to meet high
quality potential investors, customers or suppliers; and honours for
those who try to create international businesses.
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The Confidence
Again we lack any substantial quantitative data to evidence the trends
in young business start-ups coming out of the education system. In its
absence, we have to presume that those limited instances - those
0.5% who did set up a business - come from families with SME
experience or a degree of private wealth. It's just what we know to be
true.
To liberate the possibility of the many, rather than the few, embarking
on business, we have to de-risk the process. The practicalities are the
first part but the second is purely financial. We need to provide the
finance which instils a sense of responsibility but without the fear ofdebt.
Perhaps that could be done in the form of college or university based
investment banks. But this needs to be more than a bank; it is an
incubator thats a helping hand, a holding hand. The institution could
bring a whole new meaning to the term corporate parent.
Institutions could provide start up finance for materials or equipment,
perhaps even benefiting from a degree of collective bargaining. Theycould deliver payroll functions, tax advice, even IT infrastructure. All of
these tend to exist already within an institution's structures.
They could also provide encouragement to collaborate, to bring
together the web designer and the fitness instructor, and think what
might be.
They could provide loans on reasonable rates where the profit is
recycled to liberate further lending, much like a credit union. Theinstitution becomes a shareholder in the truest sense carrying the risk
in the early days so that the benefits can be shared by the
community" of both place and interest.
In the last three years, Scotland has gone from being in the fourth
quartile of Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rates up to
the second quartile. And yet we are still falling behind the rest of the
UK whose TEA rate sits at 9.8% to our 6.9%. This growth came from
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graduates, and whilst it is small at the moment, there is so much more
we can do to nurture it and really push Scotland into becoming that
innovation nation again.
Much of this progress has come through necessity rather than by
design. Now is the time to provide the architecture under which all
Scots, regardless of background or private wealth, are supported to
start out with a start up. It will be a significant act of public service to
make that change, but one which will create the decent employers,
wealth creators and indeed distributors of the future.
We will start with no traditions. We will start with ideals.
These words were spoken almost a century ago by the great James
Maxton MP. Perhaps we must leave our traditional view of public
service behind and embrace a more entrepreneurial Scotland, one that
benefits the many not the few.
This article was inspired by the writings of Carol Craig.
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Katherine Trebeck, Francis Stuart (Oxfam Scotland)
By building a more dynamic and faster growing economy we
will increase prosperity, be better placed to tackle Scotlands
health and social challenges, and establish a fairer and more
equal society.
Scottish Government, 2011
This presumption is false. It ignores the failure of decades of economic
growth to change the lives of too many Scots who still face premature
mortality, economic inactivity, mental and physical ill-health, and poor
educational attainment. In some parts of Scotland more than one in
five adults are being prescribed drugs for anxiety and depression. In
these communities the communities where Oxfam works theeconomic and social policies pursued in recent years have largely been
ineffective in reducing deprivation, while unquestioningly prioritising
economic growth has produced social and environmental damage.
Glasgow, where most of Oxfams work in Scotland is undertaken,
demonstrates how the imposition of a narrow model of economic
development impacts upon communities and individuals. It illustrates
how pursuit of money - a very partial type of financial asset
undermines social and human assets: our friends, our family
relationships and our health. This is most manifestly evident in
Glasgows growing health inequalities.
Up until 1981 the gradient of poor health in Glasgow mirrored that of
similarly-sized UK and European regions. Since then, however, health
inequalities have deepened for reasons beyond material deprivation.
Glasgows level and variation of income deprivation is the same as in
Liverpool and Manchester. Yet Glasgows poor health manifests itself
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FROM TRICKLE DOWN GROWTH TO COLLECTIVE PROSPERITY
in premature male mortality with a rate 30% higher than in these
comparable cities; suicide is 70% higher; there are 32% more violent
deaths; and 225% more alcohol-related deaths. These excesses only
emerged in the last two or three decades a time when the Scottisheconomy grew by almost 2% each year and when spending on social
problems and social welfare doubled.
Asking why this is the case, rather than blaming individuals involved,
reveals the uncomfortable path Glasgow pursued over the last few
decades. The mode of economic development (premised on a trickle
down from wealth creation) pursued from the 1980s onwards seemed
to intensify anxiety over image and status, compelling people into
materialistic pursuits that damaged wellbeing and led to harmful
behaviours (such as alcohol and drug misuse). Whereas
deindustrialisation has been somewhat managed and mitigated in
other old industrial areas, the West of Scotland lost the greatest
number of jobs as a proportion of its total employment. And while
regeneration models in comparable cities also incorporated lifestyle
and consumption, Glasgows economic development appears to be
particularly service-based and consumerist. Once one of the worldsleading industrial cities, Glasgow is now the UKs largest shopping
destination outside of London.
Glasgow shows how the transition to a narrow model of economic
growth and reliance on trickle down fails to reduce inequalities or to
revive communities rendered redundant by the prioritisation of finance
over people and of pounds over participation. The experience of
Oxfams partners in Glasgow is that development of shops, business
parks and infrastructure under the ambit of regeneration has notequated to a reduction in local unemployment jobs created are often
taken by people from outside the area and displace jobs in other local
businesses. Physical improvements have focused on business
development and consumption-based activities but, despite decades of
considerable investment, these have not significantly reversed the
comparative fortunes of disadvantaged communities.
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Of course Glasgow is but a case study for the wider economic focus of
Scotland and the UK over the past 30 years. Inherent in the dominant,
but inadequate, economic model were the assumptions that:
Wealth creation will trickle down to benefit all.
Wealth creation is more important than wealth distribution.
Market freedom is more important than community wellbeing or
individual security.
Local economic development premised on retail and services is
sustainable (economically, environmentally and socially).
Money spent on bricks and mortar, rather than on enhancing
communities themselves, will improve the socio-economic
circumstances of vulnerable neighbourhoods.
Any jobs are better than none, regardless of quality; work in and
of itself explicitly makes a good society; and paid work makes
the most valuable contribution to society.
How and what wealth is created and distributed has been ignored inthe drive to simply increase it. When the economy grinds to a halt, the
communities Oxfam works with are left high and dry by forces beyond
their control.
The debate about public service reform - through the work of the
Christie Commission - has rightly come round to the idea that building
individual and community control is crucial to good public services and
positive outcomes for people. Yet when it comes to the economy, the
only consideration seems to be how we promote economic growth
and inward investment. The wider purpose of economic activity, and
the level of community and individual control in dictating that
direction, is not considered.
This has led to a position where over the past 25 years
The wages of the top 1% of earners has risen at more than
twice the rate for the poorest 10%.
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FROM TRICKLE DOWN GROWTH TO COLLECTIVE PROSPERITY
Scotlands richest households are now 273 times wealthier than
Scotlands poorest households.
40% of Scots in poverty are now in work. Increasing labour-market flexibility has foisted increased risks
onto individuals to the detriment of family and community life.
Many community assets such as parks and green space have
been lost or devalued.
Increased materialism and consumerism has resulted in debt and
environmental damage whilst singularly failing to increase true
satisfaction.
Only 22% of Scots feel they can influence local decisions.
Poor people are stigmatised and scapegoated through social and
political discourse, particularly from the UK Government and
sections of the media, which labels people as scroungers,
cheats and undeserving.
Reflecting on these injustices, it is perhaps unsurprising that peopleexperiencing poverty are more likely to die early and spend more of
their shorter lives unwell.
Measuring the New prosperity
Most of us would define genuine wealth in terms of the
conditions of our relationshipsthe social cohesion of our
neighbourhoods and the quality of our childrens play. We
wouldnt tend to measure wealth in terms of our militaryspending, war, the development of prisons, the cutting down
of ancient forests, or increases in the [stock market]
Mark Anielski, 2003
So how do we move towards a society and an economy where we
dont simply seek to increase economic growth without any concern
for who benefits and instead measure and share genuine wealth?
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In order to achieve this sustainable and socially-just Scotland, there
needs to be a re-framing of politics so that we nurture what matters to
the people of Scotland. We must develop a better way of measuring
our collective prosperity, beyond just narrow economic growth, inorder to re-conceptualise what constitutes the success of our
economy and the success of communities and individuals.
None of this is to say that economic growth is or isnt important. To be
honest an academic debate about economic growth is of little interest.
The key debate or at least the key starting point for any debate is to
ask what should be the primary purpose of government and the
economy? In Oxfams view the answer is not to promote economic
growth. Given the increasing evidence that poverty is both a key
societal cost and a driver of government spending, combined with the
fact that more equal societies do better, reducing poverty and
inequality would be a better focus. That is why Oxfam believes we
need a Poverty Commissioner to put poverty reduction at the heart of
government, to ensure spending decisions are poverty proofed, and to
support communities to challenge government policies and private
sector actions that do not contribute to socio-economic equality.We also need better measures of success. In fairness to the Scottish
Government, the National Performance Framework is a reasonable
starting point setting out the governments overarching purpose and
encompassing a range of high-level targets, strategic objectives,
national outcomes, and indicators. Yet economic growth, measured by
Gross Domestic Product, still sits at the top of the framework and
dictates much of the subsequent policy. This is clearly evident in recent
policy and legislation including the Better Regulation Bill with its dutyon regulators to contribute to economic growth as well as proposed
changes to Scotlands planning system which seeks to put growth at
the forefront.
Pursuing real prosperity, encapsulated by a consensual measure that
captures what is important to people, would help shift the focus of our
attention and the efforts of our policy-makers so that they sustain our
society, and do not simply kowtow to the economy. It would lead to
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the prioritisation and reward of social goods (relationships, recycling,
mutuality, play, healthy spaces and so on) as opposed to short-term
economic gain for the fortunate few.
Developed through widespread public consultation with almost 3,000
people in Scotland, the Oxfam Humankind Index enables Scotland to
measure itself by those aspects of life that make a real difference to
people. The Index is an attempt to support a move away from an
economy and society based on inequalities of wealth and pursuit of
relative status, and towards an economy and society which promotes
health (mental and physical) and equality, and reduces poverty,
inequalities and overconsumption. Importantly, because Scotlands
poorest communities are so often excluded from mainstream decision
making, we made particular effort to involve seldom heard groups
when constructing the Index.
Oxfam Humankind Index sub domains and weightingsSub-domain Weight
Affordable, decent home /
a safe and secure home to live in 11Being physically and mentally healthy 11
Living in a neighbourhood where you can enjoy goingoutside and having a clean and healthy environment 9
Having satisfying work to do (paid or unpaid) 7
Having good relationships with family and friends 7
Feeling that you and those you care about are safe 6
Access to green spaces / wild spaces / social / play areas 6Work / secure work / suitable work 6
Having enough money to pay the bills and buy what youneed 6
Having a secure source of money 5
Access to arts, culture, interest, stimulation, learning,hobbies, leisure activities 5
Having the facilities you need locally 4
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Sub-domain Weight
Getting enough skills and education to live a good life 4
Being part of a community 4
Having good transport to get to where you need to go 4
Being able to access high-quality services 3
Human rights / freedom from discrimination / acceptance /respect 3
Feeling good 2
It is clear that Scots dont want huge pots of cash. They want good
health, a secure home, a pleasant environment in which to live,satisfying work, and a stable, secure income that allows them to care
for their families and to take part in society. We believe the results of
the Index offer a platform for policy makers showing what is important
to the people of Scotland.
Of course such a measurement will only be of help if it actually affects
policy change. That is why Oxfam has developed a Humankind Index
Policy Assessment Tool to help monitor and evaluate the impact of
government policies and private sector activity on the Humankind
Index. We hope policy makers and others will engage with this tool
and move towards more holistic assessments of proposed policies and
their net contribution to society.
Whether it be forthcoming legislation, the Scottish Government's
Budget or debates about Scotland's constitutional future, the
Humankind Index - as a reflection of the priorities of the people of
Scotland - is more important than ever. We hope the Labour party,and others, build on this work to put community control at the heart
of Scotlands economic development policies.
Some of the content for this article is taken from the recent Oxfam
reportOur Economy: Towards a New Prosperitysetting out Oxfam
Scotlands vision for the economy:
policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/our-economy-towards-a-
new-prosperity-294239
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Drew Smith MSP
Parliamentary democracies have evolved all over the world according
to the national contexts in which their institutions have been forged.
Their procedures reflect the circumstances of their creation and, in
most, their legislatures act to check and balance the power of
executive authority.
Parliaments are places of ministerial scrutiny, for legislative
deliberation, and for national debate. Each of these functions are
reflected in the foundation of the Scottish Parliament, but in the case
of Holyrood, other hopes for its function and form were also entwined
at its beginning, and these reflected the desires of Scotland's people
for a new politics. The devolution ideal was for a Parliament which
was not a re-convention of the old Scots Parliament, not a mini-Westminster and not a super-council. The ambition of Holyrood's
founders was for a Parliament which was easy to access, which
reflected the people it serves and which was participative, with clear
mechanisms which allowed the public to influence its business and its
considerations. Laudable and still relevant aims, but it is also true that
many of the processes which were created for and by the Scottish
Parliament were almost as much a reaction against the practices of
others as a vision of a different way of doing things based on newideas. Its electoral system, for example, was famously a compromise
which remains little-loved by anyone, and the rhetoric of Parliament
exercising power in partnership with the executive has fallen by the
way to an unfortunately considerable degree.
The Scottish Labour Party is within its rights to point to the Scotland
Act of the 1997 Labour government as Holyrood's founding document
and it is because of this statute that Scottish Ministers exercise their
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power on behalf of the Crown, which remains the constitutional
source of government's authority across Britain. Indeed even an
independent Scotland would, according to the Scottish National Party,
retain the Crown and therefore inherit the concept of the Crown asthe source of legitimate power in the land. Yet Holyrood has other
antecedents too. The cross-party and beyond-party Constitutional
Convention, itself a culmination of earlier campaigns and ideas,
produced the key reports which influenced the shape, feel and voice of
the Scottish Parliament we now have. Their deliberations, their ideals
and their mistakes, are asmuch part of Holyrood's founding as the
Scotland Act, or the plans of the Consultative Steering Group which
draw up many of the rules which the Parliament adopted for itself in1999. A thread running through the fabric woven by the
Constitutional Convention also reflected even older ideas about from
where sovereignty really stems, and the decision of Tony Blair's
government to put the question of a Scottish Parliament to the people
gives it an added legitimacy beyond that of local government or many
other Scottish institutions. The Scottish Parliament's relationship with
some of these other institutions remains unresolved, and indeed its
tendency to exercise primacy over these bodies betrays thecontradictions in some of its principles put into practice, such as the
goal of subsidiarity and devolution beyond Edinburgh rather than
simply to it.
While Scotland will welcome a verdict in her current preoccupation
with the national question on 18 September 2014, a resolution to her
local question will inevitably need to be found too, regardless of the
outcome in 2014. I have, for example, my own views about howsustainable it is for the Scottish Parliament to deny local government
the debate on their powers which it so jealously takes for itself. While
local government continues to fight a rear-guard action to hang on to
what it has, it must also struggle with the bulk of the cuts in public
spending on the services for which it is responsible. In contrast, the
Scottish Parliament confidently demands more for itself while seeking
to avoid implication in the reality of what is happening in public
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services, or to face scrutiny about the decisions taken in and around its
own precincts, and those of the Scottish Government.
Complaining about power abuses and lamenting lack of partnership in
decision-making are, of course, the hardy perennials of those who
have proximity to power but do not themselves wield it. Meanwhile
those who wish to pull local levers will always be resentful of central
control. Labour's history has largely been a centralising one, reflecting
the left's lust for change which is, at its most simple, class-based rather
than geographically motivated. That said, what used to be called
municipal socialism remains remarkable, more for the extent of its
achievements, rather than the limitations of towns halls as places of
radicalism. The Glasgow Guarantee, which the Scottish Government
itself has admitted is Scotland's biggest policy commitment to tackling
youth unemployment, is just one example of how ideas and principle
can be developed and put into practice by politicians who are not
parliamentarians. Devolution itself is, of course, an example of
Labour's intermittent enthusiasm for decentralisation; as is Johann
Lamont's clear call for Scottish Labour's Devolution Commission to
move beyond and away from consideration of Holyrood reformthrough the increasingly facile 'more powers' prism.
Regardless of the powers which Holyrood exercises, or watches
Ministers exercise, it is increasingly clear that the way the Scottish
Parliament goes about its business will have to change. The
Committees once lauded as the jewel in devolution's crown are simply
failing to set an agenda of their own at present; their law-proposing
power remains almost unique but rarely used. Some will,
understandably enough, say that this has always been the case andthat Labour and Liberal MSPs did not scrutinise the previous Scottish
Executive any more closely than SNP backbenchers currently do their
own Ministers. If this is true, then perhaps they did a better job of
pretending. Whatever the policy debate to be had now, it is worth
remembering that, for example, free personal care, before it was
subsequently adopted by the Executive, was originally a policy
promoted by a Holyrood committee at a time when relevant Ministers
were not in support. Compare and contrast this with the Justice
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Committee's recent scrutiny of Kenny McAskill's local court closures
programme where SNP Members of the Committee voted in favour of
closures after hearing evidence from campaigns to keep the courts
open which some of them were themselves actively involved insupporting. For an example of the partisan behaviour of the
Conveners, the shameless spectacle of the Education Committee
Convener who, when faced with a scandal over the Education
Secretary's behaviour in wishing to sack the chair of a college board,
toured the TV studios not to explain how his Committee would
examine the issue, but to defend the Education Secretary in advance of
hearing any of the actual evidence.
Beyond how individuals choose to use their positions there does, of
course, remain a problem that the role of Conveners has still not
properly emerged as an alternate route to promotion for MSPs. Media
interest in the work that is done by cross-party committees continues
to fall, caught in a vicious cycle whereby less scrutiny of the
government results in less scrutiny of the committee and thus declining
influence of Parliament as a whole, and no-doubt poorer policy choices
overall.Scrutiny of the current government is, categorically, being held back by
some of the Parliament's more optimistic procedures. For example, the
lack of recourse available to the Presiding Officer, or any other MSP,
when a Minister makes a statement to the Scottish Parliament which is
demonstrably, or later shown to be, simply untrue. This is a situation
which would not and could not be tolerated by a Speaker of the
Commons, or the rules that House has evolved. A longer running
problem, and one which recent changes to Parliament's sitting timeshaven't noticeably helped, is the ludicrously short time which MSPs
take to consider final amendments to legislation which then results in
effectively incidental debates about the overall principle behind the
final bills passed. Likewise, real post-legislative scrutiny, mostly
considered to be essential in a unicameral assembly, remains a far off,
if not far out, aspiration.
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The answer for MSPs, of whatever party, interested in trying to restore
greater integrity to the Parliament's systems, cannot simply be to
complain or even just to blame the current party of government.
Scottish Labour and the Scottish National Party are different beasts andour terms of internal debate come from different traditions. When
Labour next return to government in Edinburgh it is inconceivable that
a Labour parliamentary group could continue to support an executive
in office without a single back-bench rebellion on any issue ever voted
upon. Such a scenario is as unlikely as the current SNP group speaking
outabout matters of domestic policy when they are themselves faced
with their own leadership continually changing their views about key
constitutional issues such as the monarchy, defence or the currency.
The answer, for Labour, is neither to ape the SNP's discipline or to
pretend that no 'patsy' questions were ever asked by Labour MSPs at
First Ministers Questions or elsewhere. A much better approach, in my
view, would be for Labour to commit to follow reviews of the
Parliament's powers with a serious, and independent, look at how
Parliament itself is reformed. How can it become a more attractive
spectacle, and a place where power is more genuinely shared betweenthose who are members of the executive and those who are not? How
can it become a place where the influence of those it represents is felt
more keenly throughout its terms of session and across its work? The
current Presiding Officer has made a number of changes, the most
welcome of which is the addition of more topicality in questions to the
government, but both general and portfolio questions continue to fail
as opportunities for genuine scrutiny. Unlike Westminster, Holyrood
has no official opposition and those who have responsibility, to thepublic as well their parties, to shadow Minsters may not even be called
by the system of lottery questions to challenge those who do hold
power. In the absence of a liaison committee, the head of government
is not subjected to the kind of detailed questioning that could add to
the small, and unavoidably partisan, opportunity offered by FMQs.
The Parliament's petitions committee remains a vitally important, if
underused, means of access but what may have been seen as
revolutionary in the 1990s might now be considered fairly minimal in
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terms of a genuinely empowering route to decision-makers.
Associated institutions such as the Parliament's early 'Civic Forum' -
conceived as something almost akin to a sounding chamber - quickly
passed by and no consideration seems to have been given to whetherit had at its heart a kernel of an idea worth trying in other ways.
Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament continue to have some
routine access to aspects of business, including attending as regular
Committee witnesses, but potentially more formal connections which
could have been made between Parliament and other groups, which
hold democratic mandates, such as local government, Scottish MPs or
MEPs have not been created, and only limited joint-working
arrangements exist. Before even considering how reform couldencompass groups further away from day-to-day politics it cannot be
right that in a small country so little is done together. The aftermath
of a referendum, which has the potential to resolve Scotland's current
constitutional uncertainty and which may lead to a further discussion
of the Parliaments powers, may well represent an opportune moment
to consider whether partnership, if not co-decision, on certain areas
might be a possibility worthy of exploration.
Any commitment to review Holyrood's inadequacies - or more
optimistically its further potential - should be made in advance of an
election, and should not be tied to specific reforms before they can be
properly considered. Nor indeed should it be linked to any particular
constitutional outcome, be it independence or further reform of
devolution. Instead Labour should commit to broad principles of
better government and ask for cross-party support for these to be
examined and recommendation made. No incoming government willbe keen to deliver an easier time for their opposition, or often the
public, or to to give away the upper hand they have just fought an
election to win. But, Labour's experience of opposition at Holyrood
should be a salutary one, and one which we resolve to being part of
putting right, not just for the sake of frustrated opposition politicians,
but because of the value we could still place on the prize of a new
politics in Scotland.
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Anas Sarwar MP
Today in Scotland it appears that the only change on offer is
constitutional change. Not change to the way the economy is run so
that it serves everyone equally; not change to the banking system so
that businesses get the support they need to grow and develop; not
change in social security so that it helps those in need and gives a
genuine hand up to those looking for support.
Rather, we have two governments putting their own obsessions before
the needs of the country; one government slavishly following an
economic programme which is clearly not working and another
determined to put their own minority obsession ahead of the countrys
priorities.
Across the UK both governments are led by parties that put the politics
of division ahead of the real challenges. One government which is
controlled by those who seek to divide over the issue of Europe, and in
Scotland a government determined to divide by which part of the
United Kingdom you come from.
That is why Scottish Labour has to offer more than just constitutional
change. We must offer real social and economic change and I believe
there is a real desire for it.
In Scotland today growth is down and unemployment is up, household
incomes are being squeezed while household costs are on the rise.
If ever there was a time for a change in direction this is it and that is
why Labour must rise to the challenge of delivering social, economic
and environmental justice at a time of austerity. And I believe we can
best do that by following a simple course and base the political
decisions we make on the values we hold as Labour members, the
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same ones we signed up to when we joined and that hold as true
today as they have ever done.
And while two years out from the General Election it is not possible to
set out what the Labour manifesto will look like in detail, we can set
out the framework of values and principles around which we should
build our manifesto offer. After 13 years in government it is more
important, now we are in opposition, to define now the values and
principles under which we will govern in future.
The principles of equality, community, fairness, solidarity and social
justice are not remnants of the past but forces of good for the future. I
believe we can best deliver for the communities we seek to representby using these as our guiding principles.
Labour must stand up to and challenge the notion that Labour can
only deliver in times of plenty but that in times of austerity and
economic downturn only a Tory government will work. Clearly the
evidence of todays economy proves that wrong, but it also has to be
Labours job to set out why, now more than ever, you need a Labour
government working for all.
For Labour that means setting out why the best way to promote social
justice in times of austerity is to deliver economic justice.
But there is not much economic justice to shout about under the
current UK and Scottish governments. Today we see global
companies making billions of pounds in profit but paying not a penny
in tax. And yet we see those companies rewarded, not with public
scorn and condemnation but millions of pounds in government grants.
Thats not just economic immorality on the part of the company, its
political immorality on the part of government for rewarding such
behaviour.
But government does have the power to act, even when money is
tight.
Every year the Scottish public sector spends approximately 10 billion
on procurement. What I want to see is the use of that spending power
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to drive, not just growth in the economy, but changed behaviour in
the private sector. Procurement should be more than just achieving
value for money for the taxpayer but adding value to the tax money
we spend.
Government should be using procurement to support wider outcomes.
Rather than just thinking about the end product, the school, the road,
the railway or the bridge, government should raise its ambitions and
think about its wider role.
And there are three areas in which I believe we could focus
procurement to support behavioural change:
Firstly, to take action on tax dodging and the use of tax havens. I
believe there is strong public support for banning companies who are
involved in avoiding their fair share of tax from accessing public sector
contracts, bringing tax justice to public procurement.
Secondly, to extend the payment of the living wage into the private
sector for employees working on public contracts and using the
powers of procurement to deliver a positive employment agenda. For a
start this means a public apology and compensation for those whoseworking lives have been scarred by blacklisting. But we also have to
address the wider issue of tax-payer funded contracts being used to
perpetuate the practices of low pay employers.
Thirdly, using procurement of public projects to deliver other
government priorities. Government could support SMEs to access very
large contracts by not bundling up contracts into multi-million or
nationwide delivery models, support skills development by building in
proportionate apprentice and skills development expectations,
supporting local economies and environment by ensuring products are
sourced as locally as possible. All of the above is possible if
government has the will.
Its simple, the requirement to lock into the procurement system a duty
to ensure that procurement promotes sustainable economic, social and
environmental well-being; the holy grail of the triple bottom line, what
I would call the common good principle.
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But procurement is just one vehicle to change the economy and
change the country. We must go further to reform the economy.
In todays global economy it is inevitable that over time labour jobs will
go where labour costs are cheapest. That is why government must act
now to shape our education system, align our further and higher
education establishments, develop our skills and apprentice
programmes to prepare todays generation for tomorrows economy.
The recognition that someone out there is always going to seek to
undercut our jobs market on cost means we must rebuild and reshape
our economy. We mustnt just focus on what we do best but also on
what we can do better. And that means investing in a skills basedeconomy and equipping the country and its people with the right tools
to flourish.
And alongside people development, government must also invest now
to put in place the infrastructure to support and sustain a modern
economy.
But government will have to do so with much tighter financial
constraints, perhaps over as long a period of 10 years, and thisrequires a fundamental rebalancing of our economy so that, yes, it
creates wealth, but the wealth is used for a purpose.
This will not only require tough choices from todays political leaders, it
will require different choices, ignoring the short term for the benefit of
the long term, changing spending priorities today as a way of boosting
growth for tomorrow.
Such rebalancing must be based on our values and must recognise theneed for economic justice. In my constituency today people are being
handed food parcels. Just a short trip away millionaires are being
handed a tax cut. Theres no fairness in that.
In some global companies who operate in Scotland, the cleaner on the
shop floor is paying more in tax on their income than the company
itself, despite multi-billion pound turnovers. Where is the economic
justice in that?
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Its not enough just for politicians to call for corporate responsibility. If
corporations are unwilling to fulfil their obligations, to recognise they
have a public duty to pay their fair share, then politicians must be
prepared to act to address this behaviour.
I have already mentioned procurement as one carrot to entice
behavioural change. A stick approach might well be required and
exploration of country by country reporting or reform of the tax system
to reflect in-country transactions are also worth considering.
And because our values dont stop at borders, because we dont just
want corporate responsibility at home but right across the world, we
should be taking action to ensure global responsibilities are met.Today, developing countries lose three times more from tax evasion
than they receive in aid. Sadly, economic immorality isnt just practised
here in the UK and that is why we need to work in partnership with
others, not stand in isolation, to secure real change.
But those of us on the left also have to look at rebalancing the
economy in other ways.
Firstly, by taking a principled and values based stance against GeorgeOsborne and the Tory rights plans to shrink the size of the state to a
level below that of the post-war average.
We need to do more on making the case for intervention in times of
austerity rather than relying solely on public sector cuts as a way of
balancing the books and by evidencing how intervention can deliver
on our values.
Both Eds recognise the value of supporting short term borrowing tosupport investment in infrastructure. Indeed, Labour has placed capital
investment as one of its key economic planks to restore growth to the
economy.
Secondly, the left could make a robust argument, again based on our
values, for substituting tax rises for some of the planned cuts. The
millionaires tax cut should be reversed and the bankers bonus
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repeated, both measures focussed on ensuring those with the
broadest shoulders bear the biggest burden.
Thirdly, government could do more to ensure it was not stripping out
demand and consumption from the market. Supporting the Living
Wage and driving up the household incomes of lower and middle
income households will help deliver greater equality but also mean
greater spending to help to promote economic growth.
Yet lower and middle income households are the two groups who
appear to have been targeted by this government, with all the
evidence showing that the most affluent households have come off
lightest under the governments austerity measures.
All of the above measures cut right to the heart of the Labour
movement and our political values. We dont just believe in building
new schools or railways because they are good things to have
(although they are) and we dont just believe in re-balancing tax
revenues more fairly because its the right thing to do (which it is) but
because by carrying out these types of government interventions we
are supporting people into work, we are driving up living standards,
cutting down on wasted talent and giving hope to future generations.
All aspirations that sit comfortably with our values.
The last few years have not been easy. Its also pretty clear that the
next few years are going to be just as tough as the global economy
shows no signs of recovering to pre-slump levels.
These demonstrate the need for real change now. Despite the prism of
constitutional politics Labour must continue to focus on the real battles
and not solely about which politicians have which powers in which
building.
Because that is why Labour exists, to fight for equality and social
justice but crucially to put our principles and values into practice.
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of oil. Its role and what it could provide for Scotland are constantly
replayed. But this role is also troubling. Without oil receipts, Scotland
would have a deficit of around 14%1, and fluctuations in either the
price of oil or the supply from North Sea fields has a dramatic impacton the health of the Scottish tax receipt. Surely we want an economy
that works on its own merits rather than relying on geological good
fortune?
Our national economic well-being requires a reinvention of our
economic architecture. Relying on banks and oil is neither the basis for
a secure economy nor the route to an inclusive one. The Labour
traditions of equity, solidarity and mutual industry should form a new
and radical ambition to transform the Scottish economy.
This ambition is a radical rejection of the neo-liberal insistence that the
role of the state in economic matters must be confined to the macro
level - that government must confine itself to being an arch- regulator
and nothing more. Nor do we seek to turn the clock back to a
corporatist model where the state seeks to take control and ownership
of the economy. The focus of this new perspective must be on the
relationships within the economy and the mode of action must be thatof facilitator rather than either bystander or owner. This is why the
principle of devolution is key; it is a focus on the relationship of the
individual and power. It is also why it is correct for the devolved
Scottish government to champion this new economic perspective it is
best placed to facilitate and influence within the wider economic
framework of the UK.
What kind of economy do we want?What does a devolved economy look like? Undoubtedly it would have
a well-supported and active entrepreneurial element, underpinning
indigenous enterprise and measuring success by not only economic
output but popular involvement. Elsewhere in this publication Kezia
Dugdale sets out some stark statistics on the lack of entrepreneurship
1 Average budget deficit including capital expenditure, excluding North Sea Oil Revenue, between
2007-2008 and 2011-2012, Table 2a, Government Expenditure and Revenue, The Scottish
Government March 2013
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in Scotland and some excellent ideas about how to lift the level of this
activity. A key plank of economic empowerment is building the
capacity for self-employment.
We also need to drive up the quality of work and the quality of
companies. Too often economic success for an employed individual is
measured solely by wage levels. As Francis Stuart and Katherine
Trebeck tell us in their contribution, there are many more, and more
important, measures of success. Job security for individuals, and with it
the economic security of families and communities, needs to be
brought to the fore. Sustainability of economic activity, and its rooting
in communities, can give better long-term economic outcomes than
the corporatism we see taking root in many parts of Scotland today.
And security, health and job satisfaction are the real goals many are
trying to reach through their employment not profit generation.
Better companies means, at the very least, breaking the cycle of its
aye been and embracing change. The Kaizen principle a Japanese
approach which involves every employee being encouraged to come
up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis has the
potential to drive major improvement if it can be instilled into theScottish economic psyche. We are not short of ideas for improvement,
as many of us will know from our daily work. But how many feel
powerless to instigate the changes they see necessary? Kaizen means a
commitment to improvement from the whole company. It involves
setting standards and then continually improving those standards. It is
a cultural shift to which Scottish industry should aspire.
A devolved economy is also one in which vocational learning is world
class, with a flexible college sector which recognises the need for part-
time and full-time courses alongside self-led and online education.
Local specialism can not only create centres of excellence but also
contribute to community cohesiveness and a sense of economic
identity which has been eroded in recent years. And while allowing
large industry to dictate vocational training can be unhealthy,
partnership working with employers, large and small, can help colleges
to continuously improve their offerings.
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How do we build it?
A critical element of any economic plan is an investment architecture.
The devolved economy needs a new Scottish investment bank
providing capital and expertise, but more significantly it requires a
framework for regional lending. A regional approach not only allows
for local understanding to drive investment decisions, but enables the
sort of smaller-scale and lower-barrier contributions which are critical
for start-up and self-led businesses. Too much of todays available
small-scale debt funding is locked behind barriers designed to reduce
risk, while the risk-taking investment funds restrict themselves to large
investments which benefit only the already successful business. The
closer the decision-makers are to the communities in which companies
are being formed, the better able they will be to assess risk more
effectively. Too many potentially successful, if small-scale, businesses
are denied the investment they need as a result of this structural
imbalance.
The Scottish Government must revitalise how it engages with
enterprise. To effect the change we want to see in our companies, the
Scottish Government needs to do more than hold drinks receptionswith corporate executives and training courses for small businesses.
This lazy and platidunal approach perpetuates a Great Divide
between the private and public sectors which serves neither
particularly well.
Programmes are needed to ensure that knowledge, practices, people
and resources are shared and exchanged. Government must actively
seek out opportunities to work with the private sector to their mutual
benefit. Likewise effort must be put into ensuring that people and
skills flow freely between public and private sectors. This would seek
to promote innovation, spread best practice and deliver an economy
that integrates private and public sector activity.
Key to devolution as an economic principle is a renewed focus on the
relationship between the individual and the organisations within which
they work. A new emphasis on workplace learning and people
development must be pursued. Successful companies and vibrant
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economies are underpinned by constant renewal of skills and capability
at work. If we are to break the low-wage, low-opportunity cycle in
which much of post industrial Scotland is stuck, we need a step
change in how our companies support and develop their people.
Scotland must aim to have the best vocational education system in the
world. We must have apprenticeships that are rigorous and
demanding. We must ensure that university courses are relevant and
develop useful skills. Too much of our education system has a mindset
of Academic=best, vocational=second best. In France and Germany,
the brightest and best go to engineering school. In Scandinavia,
apprenticeships are competitive and understood to be hard work.
We must aim to do nothing short of matching and bettering these
systems.
Radical change
The economy is a vitally important aspect of public policy in Scotland.
Scottish industry has a both proud and tragic history. The key to
building a vibrant, dynamic economy cannot be about shifting where
national state power lies. It has to be about changing the relationshipthat individuals have with the organisations within which they work,
and changing the relationship that enterprise has with government.
That is why the principle of devolution can be applied as much to the
economy as it can to government: in both instances it is about
empowering people and changing the relationship between power
and people.
This essay, in keeping with the themes of this pamphlet, has
deliberately sought to set out aspirations rather than policy. Much of
what we seek will not be easy to achieve and requires radical change
in the way government thinks and behaves. But if Scotland is to be an
economic power house once again, we are convinced that these are
the ambitions we must have.
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Richard Kerley
Were recognising the 65th birthday of the NHS this year. 65 years old
the age at which we used to assume all males would all start to
receive the state pension; another of the pillars of the Welfare State.
Both the NHS and social protection are changing, of course. Many
people will now wait longer for a state pension, just as many of us find
the NHS very different from what we can remember from when we
first came into contact with it. We can also be certain that there is
more change to come, in these two key features as in so many other
aspects of the Welfare State. Such changes will happen whatever party
is in government; whatever the constitutional status of the country we
live in; and whatever government in London or in Edinburgh takes
these decisions. What we need to focus on is why such changes might
be needed, and how they can be best effected to make better
provision for those currently not particularly well served by our public
services.
The manner in which those aspects of public service provision that we
casually label the Welfare State are sometimes discussed is often very
unhelpful, and reflects badly on the assumptions that political parties
make about the citizens whom they hope will elect them to office and
power. It sometimes appears that politicians seeking to gain and hold
office often treat the people who elect them as susceptible to wildclaims, to be easily swayed and unable to assess practical options and
choices themselves.
Broadly speaking the terms of such political exchange can be
categorised as parties in opposition condemning the party, or parties,
in government for either irreparably destroying the fabric of a central
part of the Welfare State, or not doing enough to sustain it and
develop it in the manner self-evidently needed. The key characteristic
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PUBLIC SERVICES COULD WE DO BETTER?
of this discussion if we can call it that is an assumption that the
scale, shape and form of the components of the Welfare State are
mutually reinforcing, consistent in their features and successfully fulfil
their assumed objectives. This phenomenon is particularly marked inScotland as, in effect, what we created in 1997-1999 was a Parliament
for public services. Reinforcing that emphasis on public services was an
almost total reliance on financing through an appropriation from
Westminster the Scottish block and a surge post-1999 on the
volumes of such revenues available. Holyrood was launched on a wave
of increased public spending that is now being reined back and is
unlikely to grow again at the rate it did in the 00s. Broadly speaking
the mark of achievement in the new Parliament was to proposespending more, with limited consideration on whether we might
actually spend very differently from the historic trajectory inherited as
part of the UK driven Welfare State.
None of this helps us as a society think about what extent, form and
shape we might expect, and want, such provision to take in future: the
level of taxes we pay; whether we pay fees or charges for some
services and at what level; and what services are provided throughsome form of local discretionary decision making and others
determined by central government. Such discussion also needs to take
account of the broader changes in social values and behaviours that
have emerged over time and continue to transform society and all of
us as members of that society.
It also needs to take account of how we have seen an expanding sense
of what is assumed to be part of the array of public service provision
that we now take to be an essential part of a network of stateprovided or sponsored services. Whether that array of public services is
now properly referred to as The Welfare State might also be part of
any such discussion. Is unquestioned access regardless of income or
circumstances to emergency hospital care in the same category as free
bus travel for older people? Are discounted tickets to theatre and
concerts for unemployed people and those on other benefits of
equivalence in priority as adequate housing for all? The gradual
development and emergence of this network of public services
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