Scotland’s Future

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 18 September 2013.

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Photo of Linda Fabiani Linda Fabiani Scottish National Party

Mr Smith has just proved the point that the Labour Party here has no idea what the debate is actually about. It is about their country’s future, so Labour members should rise to the challenge of talking about it.

Scotland’s GDP per head, excluding oil, is the third highest of any part of the UK, yet we have deprivation that shames our country. All the measures tell the same story, which is that the union is not working for Scotland.

While Scottish Labour helped to privatise England’s national health service, we argued for a Scottish welfare system. When Alistair Darling signed off high-speed rail to just north of Watford, we wanted Scotland to control its own resources, and while Gordon Brown funded the Iraq war, we campaigned against nuclear weapons on the Clyde. As the contrast with Norway shows, another future is possible. We can change Scotland for the better if we have the courage.

I was struck by the contrast between two statements. The first is:

“It is by being confident—confident in ourselves, in our communities, and in our values—that we can remain an open, liberal nation.”

The second is:

“I’m not quite sure there are unique Scottish values.”

The first was Clegg on the UK; the second was Willie Rennie on Scotland.

Dare Scotland be confident in itself, in its communities and in its values? Not if the better together campaign has anything to do with it. Labour calls us a “something for nothing society” and the Lib Dems deny us our values and they pretend to offer us a positive vision for Scotland’s future.

In asset-rich Scotland, one in five children lives in poverty. There is no prospect of this Parliament, within the UK, getting the powers that it needs to tackle child poverty. How can we say that? It is because—George Adam was right—Anas Sarwar said so on Monday, live on the BBC. According to Scottish Labour’s leadership, child poverty in Scotland must be the fault of this Parliament and not of the Tories. How bizarre.

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the powers to tackle child poverty reside with Westminster.