English Labour isn't the Change Scotland Needs

It's to end this failed union

Published in The National on June 12th, and the Edinburgh Evening News on June 13th.

I’ve been getting a steady stream of English Labour leaflets shoved through my door. The latest one, a multi-coloured A3 trifold features a smiling viceroy-in-waiting Ian Murray on the front who is, unfortunately, my MP. In the bottom left-hand corner there’s an attempt at a Scottish thistle beneath which is written: “Scottish Labour: The Change Scotland Needs.” It was printed by Solopress at 9 Stock Road, Southend-on-Sea, which is in England, confirming there’s no such thing as Scottish Labour.

The leaflet is full of pictures of Ian touting his ‘achievements’ as an English Labour MP, one of which was to print a ‘cost-of-living support booklet’ with advice and resources.

The first of his “6 first steps to change Scotland” is this belter on the economy:

“Deliver economic stability - with tough spending rules, so we can grow our economy and keep taxes, inflation and mortgages as low as possible.”

Rachel Reeves’ iron-clad fiscal rules, rooted in her mistaken belief that only the private sector can generate economic growth, are behind this nonsense. English Labour won’t admit that public spending is the engine of economic growth and that the UK government can spend as much as is required to provide people with the public services they want and need.

Healthcare spending ensures people are able to work - every pound invested in health generates £4 of economic activity - and enjoy a higher quality of life. Education spending enables children to grow into productive and happy adults. Spending to alleviate child poverty - that it exists at all in a state as rich as the UK is scandalous - will give these kids and their families a better future. Renationalising energy and investing in a green transition would not only lower energy bills but also help the failing UK to compete internationally.

Instead, English Labour will privatise Scotland’s NHS, saddle students with crippling tuition fees as they’ve done in England and Wales, set up a fake public company insultingly called “Great British” Energy that won’t lower bills but will continue to plunder Scotland’s energy resources, and double down on Brexit, ignoring the huge damage it has done to Scotland.

English Labour isn’t the change Scotland needs - it’s to end this failed union.