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scottishleftreview Issue 13 November/December 2002 Controlling Scotland How our new democracy is being subverted Margo MacDonald on the need for independent MSPs Susan Deacon on the power of the civil service £1.50 £1.00 Claimants scottishleftreview comment Issue 13 November/December 2002 A journal of the left in Scotland brought about since the formation of the Scottish Parliament in July 1999 onspiracy has become very fashionable, but only so Clong as we don’t take it seriously. The ‘90s saw the Contents proliferation of television programmes, films, internet chat-rooms and bar conversations all dedicated to one Comment ...............................................................2 conspiracy theory or another. This was all fine because it was only a bit of fun. At the same time, disillusionment A parliament without dissent ................................4 with the political process became the dominant view; of John McAllion course they’re shafting us, but what do you expect? There Campaigning for independents .............................6 was a new commandment; believe whatever you want, so long as you don’t expect it to be true or expect to be able Margo MacDonald to change it. The organised corruption which is behind Ring-fenced democracy.........................................8 so much of government is only on a par with the latest Ann Winning rumour linking The Simpsons with satanic worship, or it is Fixing the machine ..............................................10 an unavoidable part of life. Susan Deacon Forty years ago an entire nation would rather believe A question of privilige ..........................................12 that a bullet could repeatedly change direction of its own David Miller accord than believe that a state apparatus could lie about Who shot Henry?..................................................14 the murder of its leader. Now we shrug our shoulders when we hear that a donation of a few thousand pounds Anonymous to his party persuaded the Prime Minister to buy massive Saving Labour ......................................................16 amounts of an overpriced and under-effective medicine Steven Birrell when better alternatives were available. Michael A gentlemen's agreement ...................................18 Moore has produced persuasive, damning and popular accounts of the corruption of American government and Henry McCubbin its relationship with the gun lobby but while he has sold Transforismo........................................................20 plenty books and tickets, it has had no visible impact on Andrew Noble the American voter. George Monbiot has put together a Web Review ..........................................................22 file of crucial questions about the corruption and lying involved in PFI projects which the Government ought to be Diary.....................................................................23 forced to answer, but which it simply ignores. Almost the entire world knows that Iraq and Al Quaida are unlinked Cover Illustration: Tommy Perman, and that Bush only wants Iraq for the oil, but that still isn’t [email protected] www.surfacepressure.co.uk going to stop him. It seems that a conspiracy has never had a better chance of being believed, but has never had less likelihood of changing anything. Editorial Committee Aamer Anwar Henry McCubbin Much of this issue of the Scottish Left Review will be Bill Bonnar Tom Nairn dismissed; by some because it is ‘just another conspiracy Moira Craig Andrew Noble theory’, and by others because, well, “what do you Roseanna Cunningham Jimmy Reid (editor) expect?”. This is a mistake. The issues raised in this issue John Kay Tommy Sheppard are of enormous importance to Scotland. We have asked a Isobel Lindsay Alex Smith number of leading writers to ask the question Who Really John McAllion Elaine Smith Controls Scotland? The picture which emerges is not an encouraging one. Robin McAlpine Bob Thomson Articles for publication should be emailed to: [email protected] We find a Parliament of politicians so strictly controlled by their parties that the debate over whether there should be Letters and comments should be emailed to: [email protected] 129 or 107 MSPs seems unnecessary - four would pretty Website: www.scottishleftreview.org Tel/Fax 0141 424 0042 well cover it. There are only about ten different opinions Scottish Left Review, 741 Shields Road, Pollokshields, Glasgow G41 4PL in the entire Parliament, and about six of those only get 2 3 one vote each. In the political parties, democracy has that doesn’t mean our Parliament can’t be interfered with. been subverted. The likelihood that a party’s policies One anonymous writer paints a pen picture of how anything will reflect the views of its members in any meaningful which our Parliament does which might embarrass way has receded into the realms of improbability - from London will be addressed, ruthlessly if necessary. which part of the Labour Movement did the idea of ‘faith schools’ emerge? Local politics are no less controlled. This is our new democracy; held ransom by unaccountable In a political structure in which issues such as planning parties or local administrations which allow no dissent and are supposed to be unwhipped, Special Responsibility barely need to explain or justify the decisions they push Allowances and other perks which can be removed ensure through, where powerful corporate interest get unfair access, that voting always takes place on party lines. Almost every where the paid officials have their own agenda, where shady decision is made by the same three or four people. networks conspire to produce mutually beneficial outcomes, and where we have to look over our shoulder in case our What is so worrying about this situation is not just that neighbours get annoyed. Indeed, the list is only this short the decisions are controlled, but that the scrutiny of those because the Scottish Left Review is of finite size. decisions is so minimal as to leave us little idea of why they have been made. In local government, and in the It has taken less than three years for this state of affairs Parliament although to a lesser extent, it is very difficult to emerge. It was precisely because so many parliaments for the general public to know whether a decision has seemed to have been ransacked by special interest been made in their interests or not. groups that the Scottish Parliament was designed with better safeguards in place. Let us not Then there are the external controls. Within The debate lose perspective; Scotland doesn’t have months of its establishment, the Parliament over whether America’s sinister one-dollar-one-vote is being circled by the corporate vultures democracy, nor quite the European who know they can expect privileged access. there should Union’s tangle of competing self interest. Too may of the politicians, meanwhile, be 129 or 107 Nevertheless, it is not paranoia to take the seem unable to differentiate between the MSPs seems view that Holyrood is at a crucial moment interests of the Scottish economy and the in a siege. If ground is given now, it will interests of an individual company. So we unnecessary be extremely difficult to regain it later. We have the Scottish Parliament Business - four would must take the threats to open government Exchange which seems to be as much about pretty well and address them now. ‘exchange’ as a burglary; the companies get what they want, the politicians get a better cover it. There are things we can do. Reforming understanding of what the company wants. There are the whipping system in the Parliament, Corporate power probably does have less only about encouraging more independents influence at Holyrood than in many other and minority parties, reforming local Parliaments (no macro economic powers, ten different government, devolving the civil service, you see), but that is exactly the kind of opinions in taking away privileged access from complacency which may cost us dear. powerful corporations (or giving it to the entire others on an equal basis), reclaiming Then there is the civil service, still with Parliament, the political parties and forcing more an enormous amount of power and still and about six disclosure of interests; all of these things with its own agendas. For the ambitious can, will, make a difference. But there is (and powerful) Scottish civil servant of those only a fundamental shift we must also make. the next move is often out of Scotland, get one vote We must not dismiss any attempt to cast and that may be where they see their each a light on the processes of government interests. Overlapping with this, indeed as paranoia or conspiracy. Nor must we overlapping with almost everything, are Scotland’s formal assume that this is the natural state of things. These and informal networks. A quick look at the Speculative corruptions, large and small, don’t just happen; they are Society affair should be enough to raise concern. Can you made to happen. It is no surprise that while the public may be sure that you are getting a fair hearing in court if you have lost interest in government, corporations and other are the only player not dining together that night? It is not interest groups have never been more involved, engaged just formal networks that should concern us; the political or connected. We must spare our politicians some of our affiliation of Scotland’s ‘quangocracy’ has been shown to scepticism, and redirect it towards some of those who are be pretty incestuous. standing in the shadows just behind them. And finally, there is our neighbour. Scotland’s desire for We created our Parliament. It is also our job to keep it devolution had gone too far for Westminster to stop it, but safe. 2 3 a parliament without dissent John McAllion argues that dissent is being abolished in the Scottish Parliament as the political parties marginalise their own MSPs ince its beginnings the labour movement’s to the functioning of the parliamentary party and its key Scommitment to achieving political change through role within the greater narrative of our democratic system representative democracy has rarely wavered.