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scottishleftreview comment Issue 18 September/October 2003 A journal of the left in Scotland brought about since the formation of the e all know that successive Washington and London Scottish Parliament in July 1999 Wadministrations are little more than the political wing of the private sector. Scotland, however, does not have the kind of financial centres which power these administrations Contents and is not prey to the political lobbyists and agenda-setters in the same way. In fact, government in Scotland is mainly Comment ...............................................................2 shaped by the old public sector vested interests. Oh yes? Well if this is true there are some things that need a bit of The dirt that lies beneath ......................................4 explaining. Why is it that this old-left dependency is building Ian Bell PFI projects at a rate at least as fast as England? PFI deals Corporate power, institutional corruption ............6 are only good for the private sector, so it is a strange thing for old-left Scotland to do. Why is it that the entire public David Miller believes that the Scottish Parliament spent all its time Discovering what's going on..................................8 debating liberal issues such as fox-hunting and gay-rights Helen Eadie and failed to discuss the economy, despite the fact that Landlord's rules...................................................10 for every hour spent on a liberal issue of this sort over Jean Shaoul ten were spent discussing how to make the private sector more money (it’s good for us all folks…) Why was the SNP, Which nationalism, which SNP?..........................12 the bulwark against the worst of New Labour free market Isobel Lindsay dogma in 1999, arguing for a Thatcherite low-business-tax What next for the SNP? .......................................14 economy by 2003? How do you explain away the Scotsman Rob Gibson MSP, Fiona Hyslop MSP, Joe Middleton, and its bizarre industry cheerleading (sometimes it feels Alasdair Nicholson, Sean Clerkin more like a newssheet for CEOs than a national paper). Why is it accepted by all four mainstream parties that the Finding the missing pieces..................................18 only route to salvation is private profit? Derrick White Book Reviews.......................................................20 The truth is that the dogma of the free-marketeers is every bit as prevalent in Scotland as in Washington. The only John Kay, Isobel Lindsay, David Miller difference is that in Scotland the public sector/trade union/ Web Review ..........................................................22 civic/NGO nexus successfully acts as a bit of a counterweight. That is why we have rented hospitals but not yet rented doctors. But remember that we have rented hospitals. Cover Illustration: Tommy Perman, [email protected] www.surfacepressure.co.uk The articles in this issue demonstrate the extent of the problem. PFI is not about building hospitals, it is about getting more money into the hands of private businessmen and about getting them a firm hold over public policy. Editorial Committee Henry McCubbin After all, these are their hospitals, not ours; did we really Aamer Anwar David Miller expect to have as much say. The lobbying that goes on is Bill Bonnar Tom Nairn largely private lobbying, and the politicians have to work Moira Craig Andrew Noble hard to see the reality of much of this. It is not (entirely) Roseanna Cunningham Jimmy Reid (Convener) their fault; the whole process is designed in such a way John Kay Tommy Sheppard that they do not get to see or chose, and if they do they are left with little option. Isobel Lindsay Alex Smith John McAllion Elaine Smith So what can we do about this? Well, firstly we have to Robin McAlpine (Editor) Bob Thomson end the complacency. The CBI Scotland persecution complex should be seen for what it is – manipulative Articles for publication should be emailed to: [email protected] stage acting. It gets almost everything it wants and still Letters and comments should be emailed to: [email protected] cries for more. We have to start ignoring the nonsense Website: www.scottishleftreview.org Tel/Fax 0141 424 0042 we read in many of the papers about what the Parliament Scottish Left Review, 741 Shields Road, Pollokshields, Glasgow G41 4PL is doing and not doing. We need to realise who gets what from government. Then we have to challenge the dogma. 2 3 PFI is NOT the only game in town. Increasing the profit of official Labour Party line remained that it was the Tories private companies is NOT the only way to improve life for they had to beat, the reality was that the majority of Labour ordinary Scots. Trickle-down economics does NOT work. MPs were very much more worried by a challenge from Industry is NOT overtaxed. Unemployment is the fault of the SNP. This meant that in Scotland the battleground profit-makers not of the unemployed. And finally we need was largely to the left of Labour and so the Party was to take control of the agenda. Scottish Enterprise is given inevitably drawn more in that direction. (Incidentally, the £500 million a year to boost the profit of private sector pragmatism-not-a-coup school of thinking on the rise of companies. What if we took all of that money and used New Labour is rather undermined by the fact that Labour’s it instead to create sustainable, cooperative, community- internal polls showed perfectly clearly that in Scotland the based employment for people which pragmatic thing to do would have been to move to the left.) provided them with a fair income? We would create In England the Labour Government can introduce more wealth for Scots (not for shareholders) and would foundation hospitals and top-up fees and go to war with do something useful for people and their community (no, ease because there is no-one serious to challenge them telesales operatives selling you a new kitchen you don’t (with the best will in the world to Charles Kennedy’s Liberal need is not of any use to you or anyone else who doesn’t Democrats). In Scotland any such move would be an open own a kitchen manufacturing or installing company). What goal to the SNP, which is why we are ‘different’. So the left if we took public trusts to build infrastructure seriously in Scotland, no matter of what party, has needed the SNP and stopped allowing people to dismiss them on the basis over the last three decades. Some might argue that now of a burden of evidence which would have prevented PFI that we have the SSP and the Greens that this need is gone. from ever being taken seriously by a single person? What And this is the question that the SNP now has to pose itself. if we began a proper debate about whether we even WANT Is it just New Labour-lite with an independence fetish or economic growth in Scotland (there is no clear argument does it have a vision for Scotland which is powerful enough for why we need it if we distribute resources fairly) and to continue to shape Scottish politics? Surely the answer what price we are willing to pay for it. What if we stop has to be that the SNP still has an important role in Scottish believing the nonsense of the invisible lobbyists? politics. Our constitutional development is clearly not over. From the committed unionist who still recognises that we s Scotland a more ‘left wing’ country than England? need the power to legislate on broadcasting to the die-hard IThere is some evidence that it may be – social attitudes nationalist, most people realise that there is more change have been shown to be a bit more likely to be supportive of to come. It is in this as well as in many other issues that collectivism and it has returned a more left-wing balance the left of all parties and none in Scotland needs the SNP to of MPs for decades. But the differences are not so marked generate thinking and to move debate. Not necessarily so that we can seriously talk of a qualitative difference of that the party can take power and implement them, but so political opinion in Scotland. In reality, the politics of the pluralist balance of debate in Scotland keeps moving in the people of Scotland as a whole are nothing more than the right direction. a shade of the politics of the UK as a whole. And yet things are different here. Our Parliament (in personnel But there is one lesson from New Labour that the SNP if not in policies) looks like a seedbed of radicalism when needs to learn. Almost every analysis of New Labour compared to Westminster and Scotland has rejected the (because almost all of them are lazy) talks about spin and more excessive free-market policies of England – from discipline as the drivers of success. In actual fact, the water privatisation to foundation hospitals. There are most significant success of New Labour was the manner cultural and historical reasons for this, but the reasons in which it took an iron grip of the ideology of the Party. It are as much structural as anything, including balance of was not just the matter of discipline but what people were public and private employment, home ownership, different disciplined in. It was not a matter of presentation but what voting systems and the SNP. was presented. New Labour had direction; an unpleasant and insidious direction, but direction nonetheless. Many The last of these is crucial. Political parties are naturally political parties around the world have taken New Labour drawn in the direction of the opposing party which worries as a model.