Focusing on the future

Published on Sunday 5 May 2002 01:00

NO minister is irreplaceable, but Wendy Alexander’s departure from the Scottish Executive still leaves a gaping hole at the heart of Jack McConnell’s ministry.

While Alexander made her decision to resign some time ago, the news that her department’s share of the Executive budget will be cut over the next two years goes some way towards suggesting her concerns were not shared by the First Minister and the rest of the cabinet. For all her faults Alexander was capable of the kind of "joined-up thinking" the Executive desperately needs.

The intersection between business, further education and transport is key to future economic success. Focusing on the amorphous concept of social justice is all very well, but failing to see, or treat seriously, the link between economic prosperity and social advancement is evidence of blinkered and out-of-date thinking.

The symbolism of Alexander’s resignation coming five years to the day since she first worked for Dewar is too neat to be coincidental. Yet as she must know herself much more still needs to be done to re-energise Scotland’s sluggish, underperforming economy.

In her final six months she pushed through a series of significant initiatives, including a national science strategy and a transport vision for the future as well as ensuring that her ally Robert Crawford remains chief executive of Scottish Enterprise until 2006. It is one thing however to lay the framework for the future, another to ensure that vision will be realised.

Without Alexander there to push policy through there can be little confidence that her legacy will be as secure as she appears to believe. In that respect it is not unreasonable to suggest she should have hung on in office at least until after next May’s elections. It is to her discredit that she leaves her job only half-done.

McConnell’s reshuffle, however, does not entirely dispel the notion that Alexander was correct to believe he is less interested in Scotland’s economic performance than he ought to be. The First Minister considered appointing Angus Mackay to succeed Alexander. In the end he baulked at appointing a minister seen as an ally of Alexander, preferring to install Iain Gray - and though Gray is close himself to Mackay his political interests are by his own admission, housing, social work, international development and the voluntary sector. That does not in itself mean he will prove an inadequate replacement, but nor does it inspire immediate confidence, for all that Gray has proved a competent performer in his previous brief. He is, however, a compromise figure acceptable to both McConnell’s allies and the phalanx of increasingly discontented former ministers on the backbenches.

The McConnell administration has thus far been marked by caution. The First Minister has further muddied his message to "do less, better" by sweet-talking every interest group he happens to be addressing at any particular moment. The result is a plethora of "priorities" but no discernible sense of direction.

McConnell may believe that he has had no choice but to play a defensive game until after the elections, but the country deserves better. The offices of First Minister and leading the Labour Party are not interchangeable and the former must take priority even, especially, if that means confronting the vested interests within Labour that oppose real reform of the public services.

The new cabinet sans Alexander is also a cabinet without any minister, with the possible exception of Jim Wallace, capable of challenging McConnell. This cabinet is, the Lib Dems excepted, entirely McConnell’s creation. He is the only "big beast" left.

The "cabinet in exile" on the backbenches has more experience of power than the cabinet sitting in Bute House. They must ensure they use that experience to critique the Executive’s performance and hold ministers to account.

Alexander’s departure is also, however, a much-needed boost for the SNP. John Swinney, whose own performance as leader has been lacklustre, has received a gift-wrapped present just when he should have been on the backfoot, explaining away the deep-rooted divisions within the SNP. He now has the opportunity to take advantage of Labour’s own troubles. If he fails to do so then the only challenge to McConnell will come from Labour’s backbenches.

The SNP has struggled to roll-out a progressive, alternative vision to Labour despite Andrew Wilson and Jim Mather’s innovative attempt to discomfit the Executive by highlighting the mediocre performance of the economy. It is a moot point whether focusing on "the economy, stupid" will alone be enough to deliver the SNP electoral success.

Just as Alexander’s resignation marks a final, symbolic break with the Dewar era, so the sudden absence from the cabinet of its brightest member highlights the need for next year’s elections to produce a higher calibre of MSP than the parliament has been blessed with in its first term.

How many of the current intake can lay claim to real achievements outside politics? How many have lived well-rounded lives? Too few, too few by far.

Alexander’s resignation leaves important questions about the nature and direction of McConnell’s administration.

So far, however, the First Minister has shown little sign of being either willing or able to answer them. Now, as he stands alone and unchallenged at the centre of Scottish politics, he must do so.