A good year for Scotland

Published on Saturday 12 April 2008 19:37

A YEAR ago Scotland was busy making history. In the throes of the Holyrood election campaign it was becoming clear that Labour's grip on power was slipping and that Scotland was about to see a historic first – a Nationalist Government in power.

When, eventually, Alex Salmond landed in a helicopter – deus ex machina – on the lawns of Prestonfield House in Edinburgh and declared an SNP victory, it was clear that this was an indelible moment in Scotland's story. This newspaper welcomed the election result and wished Salmond well in creating a Government that could energise the nation and bring a new sense of possibility to Scottish public life. One year on, and it is time to make the first proper judgment on whether or not he succeeded.

Salmond's decision to go it alone as a minority Government rather than seek a coalition was always going to have a limiting effect on what the SNP could achieve. If he had done a power-sharing deal with the Lib Dems he would arguably have been able to deliver on far more of the promises made to the electorate. Having taken the decision to go it alone, Salmond has failed to fulfil the manifesto commitments his party made on cancelling student debt and giving grants to first-time homebuyers. The SNP had to be bullied by the Tories into standing by its own pledge on increasing police numbers. And a promise to cut class sizes in primary schools has been shown to be impractical.

However, with those caveats aside, the record of the SNP's first year in power is impressive. Policies such as freezing Council Tax, cutting prescription charges, scrapping bridge tolls, scrapping the graduate endowment and saving some local hospital units from downgrading have struck a chord with wide sections of the Scottish electorate. These were solid, tangible policies with a material effect on people's lives, and they left much of the electorate feeling that this was a Government that could get things done.

Furthermore, with a Nationalist Government in Edinburgh and a Labour Government in Westminster, the true nature of devolution has become apparent, hissy fits, huffs and all. Too often in the past, disputes were swept under the carpet and decisions made on a nod.

The main reservation about the SNP administration is one that few people would have predicted a year ago, after an election campaign in which Salmond was the undoubted star performer. Now, it would appear, many of the concerns about the SNP administration centre on Salmond himself. Whatever the rights and wrongs of his involvement in the planning process over Donald Trump's 1bn golf complex in Aberdeenshire, the affair appears to have dented Salmond's public perception. And it does not seem to be a one-off. Salmond's actions have come under scrutiny over the fast-tracking of an Aviemore hotel complex being built by a major SNP donor; and today there are new questions about the First Minister's intervention in a takeover battle for ScottishPower. He could argue, with some merit, that his actions have been decisive and have shown strong leadership, that he was standing up for what was best for Scotland. However, fairly or unfairly, there is evidence of vulnerability.

As we approach the anniversary of the SNP's victory and head into the administration's second year, this newspaper is still in disagreement with the Scottish Government on some major planks of its programme. Its plans to scrap Council Tax and replace it with a Local Income Tax represent an unwelcome new burden on the Scottish middle classes. And we disagree with the SNP's aim of complete independence from the rest of the United Kingdom; a far more sensible – and popular – course of action would be to negotiate more powers for the Holyrood Parliament, especially the financial levers necessary to inject some dynamism into the Scottish economy.

But there is one matter on which we are able to congratulate Salmond and his ministerial team wholeheartedly, and that is the effect their victory seems to have had on the general mood of the Scottish people. Today, Scotland feels more comfortable with itself than it was a year ago. There is a welcome air of confidence and ambition in the country that must, in some part, be the result of a new spirit in Scottish public life. For that reason alone, this has been a good year for the Scottish Government, and a good year for Scotland.