Angus Robertson famously declared after the NATO motion victory, \u201che who dares, wins\u201d. That phrase has always stuck with me.<\/p>\n
Following the Scottish Government\u2019s Programme for Government (PfG) release, even Kenny Farquharson (Sunday Times Scotland columnist) declared it the kind of bold strategy that was expected and needed by Nicola and the SNP.<\/p>\n
However, within hours of the PfG\u2019s release, Labour in Scotland tweeted that the PfG was based on 10 policy ideas of their own. A bold and deliberate attempt to say, \u2018the SNP isn’t radical, we thought of it first\u2019.<\/p>\n
First of all, politicians of whatever shade of party are rarely the type of people to design and produce policy ideas fit for implementation. I know that may come as a shock to many, maybe even a direct criticism of government, but tough. Get over it.<\/p>\n
Politicians may come from a wide variety of experience and backgrounds but one thing they are rarely good at is policy formulation. Development of, perhaps. Ownership of, most certainly. Successful implementation of, with mixed degrees of effectiveness.<\/p>\n
Policy formulation – the deep analysis, issue recognition and workable solution – is frankly a difficult ask of anyone. Professional bodies, academics, trade unions, think tanks, civic organisations, political parties, all think that they can formulate policy. Many of them do. But the vast majority tend to go for the solution that fits their own ends rather than necessarily that which is best, optimal and even downright practical.<\/p>\n
For example, I would say that a polluters\u2019 tax on aviation fuel is a fine policy to bring the only fossil fuel without taxation into line with cars, buses, lorries and even diesel trains. However, aviation fuel is a truly international commodity and on the whole requires global effort to implement it if it is to be truly successful without displacement effect.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Turning my attention back to that Labour tweet. So let\u2019s look at this in detail:<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s ideas<\/strong><\/td>\n| Reality test<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | A soft opt-out Organ Donation Bill has been a Labour Member\u2019s Bill in this and the previous sitting of the Scottish Parliament. Last year SNP MSPs voted against an opt-out Bill brought forward by Anne McTaggart.<\/td>\n | The Donation and Transplantation Plan, 2013-2020 has been the catalyst for meaningful improvement in organ donation in Scotland. Holyrood’s health committee\u00a0backed the aim, but not the detail of the Anne McTaggart\u2019s bill, which is why the SNP preferred to bring forward a Government bill to get it right (just like Jack McConnell did in stealing the anti-smoking bill in 2003).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Free access to sanitary products in schools, colleges and universities is part of a Member\u2019s Bill from Monica Lennon.<\/td>\n | <\/p>\n | This has been a fascinating example of how the Gillian Martin, an SNP MSP passed a motion to make this party policy before Monica Lennon was even an MSP. Let\u2019s not forget that VAT is a reserved matter which Labour failed to act on in 18 years of power.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n An end to rough sleeping was in Labour\u2019s 2017 manifesto, and it was the last Labour led Scottish government that passed world leading legislation aimed at ending homelessness in 2003.<\/td>\n | Labour appear to be very good at creating legislation to abolish social injustice but totally ineffective in delivering it. Remember Gordon Brown\u2019s abolition of child poverty act?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Labour has attempted multiple Member\u2019s Bills to reregulate buses in Scotland.<\/td>\n | <\/p>\n | The Labour led Scottish Executive were in power for eight years and never once considered re-regulation of buses. Maybe something to do with First Bus CEO donations to Labour leadership contests?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Labour proposed a publicly owned People\u2019s ScotRail in our 2016 manifesto \u2013 a step further than the SNP\u2019s commitment to a public sector bid.<\/td>\n | <\/p>\n | The SNP said it would \u201cEnable public sector operators to bid for future rail franchises.\u201d Is it just me or semantics that a public sector operator is a People\u2019s Scotrail? The Tories devolved the power to create a public sector bid in 2016. While in government Labour chose not to devolve the power.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n A Pupil equity fund is Labour\u2019s Fair Start Fund \u2013 first proposed in 2015.<\/td>\n | <\/p>\n | Actually, Labour\u2019s Fair Start Fund is just another form of \u2018pupil premium\u2019 which was brought in by the Tory\/Lib Dem coalition government in 2011.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n <\/p>\n | Labour proposed a Scottish Investment Bank in our 2017 manifesto- with \u00a320 billion of lending power behind it.<\/td>\n <\/p>\n | I hate to say to it pejoratively but there has been a Scottish Investment Bank in nearly all SNP manifestos in my lifetime.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n <\/p>\n | Labour supported the Frank\u2019s Law campaign in our 2017 manifesto \u2013but would have gone further and scrapped charges regardless of age, and not just for those with prescribed conditions.<\/td>\n <\/p>\n | Interestingly, it was Tory MSP that brought forward a Member\u2019s Bill which all parties have supported and now the Scottish Government can implement following a study to make it workable.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Labour councillors already started work on exploring a basic income in Glasgow, Fife and North Ayrshire.<\/td>\n | <\/p>\n | And very welcome that this is. Of course, North Ayrshire councillors voted to increase the senior councillors allowances above the public sector pay cap and the less said about the income of Glasgow Labour councillors over the years, the better.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n <\/p>\n | Scrapping the public sector pay cap was a Labour manifesto pledge \u2013 and one the SNP voted against in the spring.<\/td>\n <\/p>\n | Neither SNP nor Labour made a pledge to end the public sector pay cap in 2016 and both made a similar pledge in 2017.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n Of course political parties want to claim credit for everything that is popular and good. It\u2019s all part of the game so to speak. But the reality is most ideas do not come from one source. Invariably they start from a group with an interest, which is then evolved as more and varying interests are engaged and then ultimately \u2018sold\u2019 to political parties for inclusion in their manifestos, purely for implementation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is striking about the new \u2018gallus-not-callous\u2019 Labour approach is that it conveniently hides the real difference between Labour and the SNP which they don\u2019t want to talk about:<\/p>\n
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