I’m astonished at how little leadership our politicians offer.
Both John Swinney and Andy Burnham are in a strong position to make bold decisions at the start of a new term, yet their programmes for government, announced this week, were nothing but exercises in wishful rhetoric.
Bowls of thin soup, smelling good, but containing nothing but a few nuggets of crowd-pleasing hand-outs.
They both shied away from the big issues of our times – meaningful employment for young people, money and reform for the NHS and the care services, proper funding for education and local councils, climate change, immigration, international peace and prosperity. Instead, we have structural changes, vague promises of reform and a series of small pots of money to cap bus fares and temporary price caps for fuel and food.
These cost-of-living measures are simply papering over Britain’s shameful inequality. The so-called cost of living crisis is only a crisis for the poor. The richer half of the population can well afford to pay higher prices for their food and energy – indeed they should, to give farmers a decent living and reduce the carbon we burn.
John Swinney told parliament he was introducing the biggest change in the structure of Scottish government since devolution.
It sounds important but all he meant was that he is cutting the number of health boards from 12 to 2, merging some of the environmental agencies and asking smaller councils to think about co-operating with others in their region. One wonders why these separate bodies were set up in the first place – there must have been good reasons, perhaps relating the local participation. But what it will mean is a cut in the number of public sector employees and therefore reduce public services and damage the economy.
With his other hand Swinney is promising to extend child care, introduce more breakfast clubs and after-school clubs in primary schools and increase the Scottish Child Payment. So it’s not clear to me how he is addressing the £5bn black hole in the government’s finances.
One thing he is doing is adding two top bands to the council tax, so councils can collect a little more tax from wealthy households. But he could go much further to raise government revenue. For example he could increase income tax on the rich half of the workforce or introduce a social care levy on every dead person’s estate.
He could also target the Child Payment and the winter fuel allowance on those who really need it. And to curb the ever increasing costs of the NHS, he could privatise hip and knee replacements (as has been done on dental care) and end expensive operations on the very old.
But his unwillingness to lead, has left him tinkering around the edges of the problems. The merging of NHS local boards has left people wondering what difference that will make to day-to-day services. The introduction of walk-in clinics has been criticised by GPs, who say it will lead to disjoined and inappropriate care. The extension of a £2 cap on bus fares may reduce local services. And the price cap on milk, bread and cheese in supermarkets will surely leave farmers wondering if they should stay in business at all.
The effects of 20 years of austerity have finally come to a head in Glasgow where the council is now facing a deficit of £110m. An Accounts Commission report this week says it’s due to three things: the council has been penny-pinching in the past over women’s pay, resulting in a legal compensation bill of £750m; it’s housing costs have increased to £56m a year because of the high number of refugees in the city; and because Glasgow has an unusually large number of deprived areas.
Glasgow is not alone. The collective shortfall between income and expenditure for all of Scotland’s 32 councils is £647m. That’s the result of successive Scottish governments not having the funds to pay for the extra responsibilities placed upon councils, like social care and teachers’ pay deals. But also, the SNP made the disastrous decision to freeze council tax for 11 years. Even now, in another example of a lack of leadership by all the political parties, council tax levels have not kept up with rising house values.
No one seems to have the courage to take bold decisions.
In the words of G K Chesterton’s fine hymn:
“O God of earth and alter
Bow down and hear our cry
Our earthy rulers falter
Our people drift and die.
The walls of gold entomb us
The swords of scorn divide.
Take not thy thunder from us
But take away our pride.”
And he ends with the plea:
“From sleep and from damnation
Deliver us good Lord.”
