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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

    e [email protected]

    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.

    6 Scottish Fabians

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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.

    Scottish Fabians 7

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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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    COMMON CAUSE

    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

    Scottish Fabians 9

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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

    Scottish Fabians 11

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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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    COMMON CAUSE

    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.

    Scottish Fabians 13

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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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    ENTERPRISE AS AN ACT OF PUBLIC SERVICE

    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.

    Scottish Fabians 15

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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.

    Scottish Fabians 17

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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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    DELIVERING SOCIAL JUSTICE THROUGH ECONOMIC CHANGE

    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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    DELIVERING SOCIAL JUSTICE THROUGH ECONOMIC CHANGE

    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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    Ambitions for Scotland

    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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    Ambitions for Scotland

    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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    DEVOLUTION AS AN ECONOMIC AMBITION

    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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    DEVOLUTION AS AN ECONOMIC AMBITION

    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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