Minimum Unit Pricing – The First Vote

After a silence of several months on the matter of minimum unit pricing – the price limitation of alcohol supported by the SNP, the Westminster Health Select Committee and the BMA – the topic is back on the agenda. It couldn’t have been more timely given alcohol sales are about to skyrocket off the back of the world cup, which has spawned dozens of cheap offers prior to the opening ceremony on Friday.

Today, MSPs will be debating the Alcohol Etc. (Scotland) Bill, which lays out a variety of methods to curb Scotland’s levels of alcohol abuse. It will pass to Stage 2, during which amendment can be proposed, because the Lib Dems, Labour and the Tories support the the measures within the bill other then minimum unit pricing.

If the bill is successfully amended to remove minimum unit pricing, and not amended to include a limit of sufficient value, then it will likely prove itself as effective as previous Labour legislation aimed at curbing alcohol abuse. For those who don’t remember, Labour were ineffective at best in tackling alcohol abuse, with little to no progress made on the issue either in Holyrood or in Westminster (the sober and sedate body which allowed 24 hour licensing). Labour now seem hellbent on maintaining this reputation, pursuing a heavily partisan agenda where no justification for one exists.

One bright side of the whole affair is that an amendment to outlaw highly caffeinated drinks will be forthcoming. The monks of Buckfast Abbey will be wringing their hands at this news since it will ban their product – a bottle of which contains more caffeine then many heavily caffeinated soft drinks. The potential effects of this cannot be underestimated, although the potential for Buckfast either adapting to the new requirements or being smuggled into Scotland for grey market sale is high and would likely negate any potential benefits. There is also high possibility that those who drink Buckfast and become involved in anti-social behaviour would simply switch to another similar drink, such as MD 20/20, a truly foul but widely available American fortified wine with additional colourings and flavours.

It will be interesting to follow the future progress of this bill. If successful, it has the potential to make far reaching social changes and end part, but not all of Scotland’s dependency on alcohol.

The New Rush To Devolution Max?

Having not watched Newsnicht for a few weeks (or read the Herald or Scotsman), I was somewhat surprised when I turned it on this morning to hear that seemingly a majority of academics and business people support going beyond the recommendations of Calman. This is particularly significant given that Alex Salmond is putting the case to the Joint Ministerial Council that Scotland should be given considerably greater economic powers.

This represents a massive turnaround on the part of the Scottish public. Just a few months ago, devolution max and fiscal autonomy were options being pushed by a minority of academics and the SNP, with many of those who are active in the field of devolution politics advocating the Calman Settlement. As predicted by many, it would appear that the realities of Tory government in the UK as a whole have given people cause to meditate on Scotland’s constitutional future.

The motives behind this change are obvious. David Cameron’s rhetoric on cuts – decimating the public sector, changing our way of life, nothing off the table – don’t sit well in Scotland. Here is a country which still bares the scars of the Thatcher cuts, has high unemployment and too little external investment and we are told that we must destroy one of our main employers, with cuts of up to 30%. We are, potentially, looking at a scenario where the Tories do to Scotland’s public sector what they did to Scotland’s mining and steel industry two decades ago, decimating yet another workforce and creating a new generation lost to unemployment.

No-one in Scotland wants that.

We can see how we have benefited from a large public sector. We know how important the quality of education and the need for carers and nurses is. We have benefited immensely from having nearly 100% of the 4-18 education system in state hands, and while private healthcare is more common, we have also benefited from the absence of foundation hospitals and other part-private endeavours. We know that we still need to do a lot of work to deal with the legacy of the 1980s and that requires public investment.

This is not compatible with the guiding vision which the Tories and Lib Dems have outlined for their economic butchery. That’s not to say that there won’t be cuts in Scotland – there has to be – but at the same time we must focus on maintaining the things which make this country great and maintain our way of life, not hawking them off to the highest bidder, holding a ‘bonfire’ of government agencies on the basis of public perception or seeking to create “a new way of life” in “the Age of Austerity”.

The important thing now is for the SNP to capitalise on this. The independence referendum, which includes an option for devolution max, must be brought back on to the agenda soon. Labour and the Lib Dems face losing creditability over their opposition to the referendum as public support for the devolution max or full fiscal autonomy continues to grow. The iron must be grasped while it’s still hot lest the opportunity slip away and Labour gain too much from Lib Dem supporters it’s picked up.

Arise Lord McConnell of Wishaw

It can’t be easy being Jack McConnell. First you line up a dream job in Malawi, then your party say they can’t risk a bye-election, so you have sit at the back of the chamber as you watch your successor get regularly trounced by Alex Salmond. Then, just as Scottish Labour is starting to look for a new leader in the wake of Brown and with the realisation that Steven Purcell isn’t coming back anytime soon, just when you think it’s safe to start making noises as a prelude to a leadership challenge, you’re in the House of Lords.

Now, I doubt that McConnell is going to lose his Scottish Parliament seat after Brenda waves her sword about his head. After all, Motherwell and Wishaw is Labour heartland and the SNP are 23% behind McConnell in the seat. What he has just lost is any future as a Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland (as the office is clunkly titled).

Labour is no stranger to having peers in their ranks. Tony Benn was, of course, a heredity peer who renounced his title, while one of Labour’s list MSPs, Lord Foulkes retains his red seat. There are also in the region of two-hundred and twenty-five Labour peers currently sitting in the House of Lords. Having a peer as a leader on the other hand, is something alien to Labour. I suspect, it’s something that the Scottish people as a whole wouldn’t be particularly keen on, with the title ‘Lord’ dripping in feudal symbolism and the privileged imagery of the type which does not sit well with Jock Tamson’s bairns. It doesn’t help that Lord McConnell will be able to claim additional expenses and further wages for swaggering around in ermine while his constituency remains an area of considerable social deprivation, the legacy of Ravenscraig.

With this last gift from Gordon Brown and no sign of up and coming Labour talent to replace Grey, McConnell may well have helped to sink Labour’s chances in the Scottish Parliament for some time.

The Committee Room Names

I received an email last night from MSP Tricia Marwick regarding the naming of the Scottish Parliament Committee Rooms. It contained the Scottish Parliament press release outlining the final selection of names for the Committee Rooms.

They are:

Robert Burns – CR1

Mary Somerville – CR2

James Clark Maxwell – CR3

Alexander Fleming – CR4

David Livingston – CR5

Adam Smith – CR6

It is a commendable selection, and I approve of the decision to acknowledge the arts and sciences rather then political figures.

The inclusion of Mary Somerville is particularly interesting. She is seldom acknowledged alongside other Scottish scientists despite being one of the first female members of the Royal Astronomical Society and having a large body of highly commended published work. I have to admit, that I hadn’t heard of her before yesterday evening.

The text of the Parliament’s press release can be found here.

For reference, the beady eyed amongst you may notice that the press release was published before my previous post. This is due to the fact that I wrote my post in response to the initial BBC story about the naming of committee rooms, which simply stated a decision was to be made. I then waited until the next day to publish the post, giving myself time to check for errors. Sadly I neglected to check to see if the BBC story had been updated, by which time it had been.

Six Great Scots For One Great Parliament

Flippant post titles aside, the Scottish Parliament has sought suggestions from MSPs for six famous Scots (or Scots-decended people) to name their committee rooms after.

This is an endeavour which I cannot disagree with, although the price of the name plates for the rooms (£2,000 each according to the BBC) seems slightly over the top. Personally, I would like to see some of Scotland’s less remembered names remembered rather then Burns and Scott, who already have not inconsiderable memorials. So here’s my suggestions for the committee rooms names:

- The Keir Hardie Room  - While this suggestion is very political, Kier Hardy, the Glasgow-born founder of the Labour Party, played a massive part in the history of the UK and Scotland. He is seldom recognised for the role he played in building the trade union movement, founding the Labour Party and working towards devolution. It’s worth noting that while Hardie was never a member of the SNP’s predecessor parties, several of his collegues were and he did influence them.

- The Mary Slessor Room – Slessor spent little of her life in Scotland, living and dying in Nigeria. Since her image was added to the Clydesdale £10 in 1998, I have heard people time and time again wonder who she was. She is, in fact, an Aberdeen-born and Dundee-raised missionary credited as one of the earliest women’s rights activists in Africa, working to help oppressed Nigerian women.

- The James Watt Room  - Watt was one of the forces behind the industrial revolution, discovering the double action steam engine. While many Scots are credited with making massive changes to society, few went quite as far as Watt, who quite literally powered two centuries of industry.

- The Margaret MacDonald Room – Often dwarfed by the reputation of her husband, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Margaret MacDonald was one of the leading lights of the Art Nouveau movement. Many of her works can still be seen in Mackintosh designed buildings around Scotland.

- The Adam Smith Room – Little needs to be said about the father of modern economics, a man who, despite his long term effects on society is seldom acknowledged.

- The John Knox Room – Knox is by no means a man who is revered by history, indeed, it’s probably accurate to say that he’s still one of the more disliked Scottish figures, known for his intolerance and general foul temperament. Yet by bringing Presbyterianism to Scotland, he left a lasting mark on the nation which has often set us apart from our peers.

I doubt any of these names will be adopted by the Parliament, except maybe that of Smith, but I may be surprised. No doubt they are all on the long list. Of the likely candidates, I suspect that one room will almost certainly be named after Donald Dewar.

NB: Edited to correct factual inaccuracy regarding Mary Slessor’s place of birth.