Joan McAlpine: Sense of déjà vu about Conservative scare tactics
Tory opposition to Scottish independence is strong on lurid warnings but remains largely unsupported by hard facts
THE newspaper clipping is inky and old, but preserved forever in cyberspace. It is dated 1990 and the writer is a long retired Scottish political journalist. But this front-page story could have been written yesterday.
It warns of the “three evils” that constitutional change would unleash on Scotland’s economy: “Uncertainty, conflict and cost!” There is talk of massive tax hikes, marginalisation in Europe and terrifying black holes into which our prospects will disappear if we dare to govern ourselves.
The report describes a pamphlet written by Viscount Lord Weir, a prominent Tory industrialist, the unionist economist Professor Donald Mackay and Allan Stewart, then the Tory MP for Eastwood. It is the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party’s first response to the Constitutional Convention, the body that harnessed the churches, trades unions and local authorities with the Liberal Democrats and Labour to draw up a plan for a devolved Scottish parliament.
While the political landscape may have changed, some of the spectres haunting it have not. Lord Forsyth, then plain old Michael and MP for Stirling, stalked the land, warning that a Scottish Parliament would result in another 20p in the pound hike in income tax. Malcolm Rifkind, the then secretary of state for Scotland, writes ominously in the foreword: “Tories passionately believe devolution would be fundamentally damaging both to Scotland’s political interests at Westminster and future economic wellbeing.”
Since that story was written 21 years ago, everything has changed in Scotland. Nobody back then thought the Tories had Scotland’s interests at heart. We are certainly not going to place any more trust in George Osborne, a man who never knowingly expressed an interest in this country or its wellbeing before it was in his political interests to do so. Indeed, Osborne makes Forsyth look positively patrician. He has ignored all warnings about the effect of his deficit reduction strategy and only the implementation of John Swinney’s Plan MacB to boost growth has mitigated his worst excesses in Scotland. The Chancellor’s completely unsubstantiated claim this weekend that big business was being put off investing in Scotland by “uncertainty” over the timing of an independence referendum has all the credibility of Viscount Weir’s “three evils” a generation ago. But after all these years of Tory scaremongering, is anyone still listening?
The business community certainly is not. Osborne and his supporters in the Liberal Democrat and Labour benches clearly have not learned the lessons of May, when dozens of Scottish job creators lined up to endorse Alex Salmond and/or the SNP. Days before the poll, 200 of them signed a full page endorsement in The Scotsman. Some of our most successful entrepreneurs backed Salmond, as the best man to see us through difficult times, to paraphrase Sir David Murray.
Neither Osborne, nor the Scottish Labour MP Willie Bain, who so enthusiastically endorsed his comments on Radio Scotland yesterday, could produce a single example of a firm which has refused to come to Scotland because of nervousness about a referendum. There is lots to get jittery about right now – the eurozone meltdown, the tottering French banks, access to capital for investment, the lack of growth in the world economy, Osborne’s own mismanagement. Are we seriously to believe that captains of industry don’t have more to worry about than the technicalities and timing of a constitutional consultation in a stable, oil rich, business friendly western democracy?
If they have thought about it at all, these companies are likely to look favourably on more power going to a Scottish Parliament controlled by the SNP, which has shown itself to be focused on success through measures such as competitive business rates, a transfer of funds into capital investment and a development strategy focused on growth companies, growth sectors and growth markets.
The Scottish Government has published a list of the dozens of companies which have chosen to invest in Scotland in recent months, including Taqa, Aker, Dell, Doosan, Amazon and Mitsubishi. Much of that is also down to political leadership – a fact acknowledged by David Murray and others. Vice President Al Gore commended the First Minister and his government for their trailblazing of renewables as did the government of South Australia, which awarded him its award for tackling climate change.
Osborne’s latest intervention is a piece of political cynicism, which looks increasingly like part of a co-ordinated campaign to damage confidence in Scotland both internally and externally. Last month the Financial Times reported that our success in attracting international investment was down to “the team Scotland approach adopted by the devolved Holyrood government and its enterprise agencies”.
But the FT also reported that this success had roused a green-eyed monster among true blues in the North of England. Linda Arkley, North Tyneside’s Tory Mayor, was so upset at losing 900 Amazon jobs to Greenock and Fife that she intervened through both Osborne and Vince Cable to “see what could be done”.
For from having Scotland’s future prosperity at heart, it is more likely that the Chancellor is desperate to dampen down our success. Just look at his record.
Osborne’s damaging oil tax hike hit offshore investment in the North Sea at a critical time. And unlike the non-existent and unnamed companies he claims are worried about constitutional, change – we have a long list of organisations who spoke out about that act of fiscal vandalism.
Osborne, like Tories in the past, is oblivious to how duplicitous he appears. Expect more of this sort of stuff in the weeks and months ahead. But don’t expect it to have any effect. The people of Scotland have heard it all before.
• Joan McAlpine is SNP member for South of Scotland
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Comments
There are 54 comments to this article
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zippitydoodaa
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 10:33 PMGrahamski - I know the exact date of the Referendum, but your not allowed.
footdee
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 10:01 PMOther verses ,go over to Sub Rosa to read them
footdee
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 10:00 PMComment removed by moderator
footdee
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 09:59 PMPending Moderation
footdee
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 09:56 PMWell one fine day no so long ago, they tried tae moderate My comments on a newspaper site, all aboot the unionist debate It simply went tae show them up, for the cowards we know they are Ah tore them a’ tae shreds, on the forums and the threads, cuz I wullnae let them get too far----------- Noo, Labour hud been in power here, for fifty years or more But Scotland never seemed tae thrive, like the great big country right next door-------- So why do we gie them aw oor dosh, oor oil an' oor whisky tae? Cuz, they hivnae got a clue, an don’t ken whit tae do, wi the hunners o the money we pay.
footdee
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 09:55 PMComment removed by moderator
footdee
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 09:52 PMA couple of verses from sub rosa
footdee
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 09:52 PMI'm a Nat, I'm a Nat, I'm a CyberNat that's the name ye gie’d tae me, I'll speak fur masel an ma pals as well, aboot ma land that will be free. I'm no’ the kind o' Nat that listens tae a Brat, sayin the union hus tae stay Naw, I'm the kind o' Nat that’ll tell yon Brat, we will go our own sweet way.
footdee
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 09:51 PMI roam aroon the old chat rooms, the forums and the threads, The unionists are feart ae me, they all take tae their beds. Fur they cannae convince us ony mair that the UK's the only way, We've a’ seen the light, and it’s shining really bright, we're gonnae be free one day
Wee Archie GemmiII
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 07:05 PM@36 "Please tell us how it is in our best interest for Mr Salmond to keep the date of the referendum a secret." It's not a "secret", dear, any more than what you're having for your tea on the 4th of March 2013 is. A secret is something that's already been decided. The exact date of the referendum hasn't. Don't worry, when it has you'll find out in plenty of time.
Mikey von Ruden
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 07:01 PMGood grief, are JP attempting to balance their anti-independence saturation propaganda? This would be an ideal time for a media student to tabulate headlines for & against, compose a dissertation aimed at to what extent the establishment actually control the media force fed to Scottish citizens on a daily basis! Or has this been done before?
Leisure_suit_Larry
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 06:27 PMThis is Marxist drivel. The reason we're in this mess is because the previous socialists spent,spent and spent giving us a 12% structural deficit and a mountain of debt reaching £800 bn and rising. Now they say they need to spend more money we don't have to "boost" the economy. The only reason we're not in the same predicament as Greece, Italy and Ireland is the action taken by the UK government to tackle these problems, otherwise the money men would have downgraded our credit status to junk. For the record both Ireland and Italy had lower structural deficits than the UK. The political opportunist McAlpine is clearly out of her depth . NB: I see her ex is writing a column in this rag today , spewing out his marxist, luvvy duvvy nonsense - coincidence ?
Kendomacaroonbar
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 03:11 PM41 True Scot If the cancellation costs of the MOD orders had not been prohibitive Scotland would never have received them in the first place. And that is with Scotland being part of the Union...so what exactly is the benefits that we would lose that we wouldn't have done under the Union ?
True Scot
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 02:50 PMYes those are the issues, among many -uncertainty, conflict and cost. At least some politicians such as Osborne and Moore are talking about them. salmond's mantra of 'don't worry-be happy' just doesn't cut it anymore. If Joan McAlpine was still a journalist rather than a nat drone, she might be probing these issues a bit more closely
Kendomacaroonbar
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 12:39 PM37 Grahamski. Like I said in my post. I am not bothered about knowing the dates.....................Salmond is hiding nothing other than the hiding he gave you in May, which means, he sets the agenda and not you.
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