My New Year's Wish is for Scotland to put the failing UK out of its misery

This was published in the December 30th Edinburgh Evening News. I wrote it in response to Ian Murray’s regular Thursday column, which was full of the usual drivel about how an English Labour government will be good for Scotland.

Ian Murray promises Labour will go into the 2024 election year with a positive policy platform that will put Scotland’s interests first. When have we heard that one before? 

He says, presumably with a straight face, that Keir Starmer has changed Labour into a credible alternative to the Tweedledum Tories. He HAS changed Labour – but only into Tweedledee. 

Labour’s ‘big idea’ this holiday season is to crack down on ‘dodgy’ sweet shops to revive UK high streets. Meanwhile, it clings to the myth that governments are like households – that they must reduce ‘debt’, slash deficits and prevent new investment that could make people’s lives better because ‘there is no money’. 

Labour either doesn’t comprehend or wilfully ignores that a government with its own central bank and currency can make the necessary public investments in health, education, transport and a green energy revolution that will lead to full employment without inflation. That’s what a competent government should do, but the last time a UK government acted in the interests of the people was under the post-war Attlee government. 

Instead, we’re asked to believe that another round of austerity while changing nothing of substance – no electoral reform, no renationalisation of public services, no more money for the NHS, no reigning in of the financial services casino – means our lives will improve.

My new year’s wish for Scotland is that we locate our spine and put the failing UK out of its misery.