How Brexiteer and Scottish nationalisms have made tough times for Scotland worse

Scotland needs politicians who will focus on the economy and fixing the NHS

There are probably few who would disagree with Alex Salmond that Scotland is worse now in “every possible respect” than it was in 2014. However, legions would take issue with his claim that, had Scotland voted for independence, the country would now be in a “fantastic” economic position.

The former First Minister’s view of a post-independence Scotland, led by him, is so rosy that he imagines “putting quotas on the number of English companies who are able to relocate” because there would be so many.

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We would suggest that Scotland’s current troubles did not start with its rejection of independence in 2014, but the global financial crash of 2008. The country has never really recovered from that heavy blow and the years of austerity which followed. Brexit, the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis supercharged by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine then added considerably to our woes.

However, the way our two governments, the SNP at Holyrood and the Conservatives at Westminster, handled these multiple crises has played no small part in making them worse.

While people were struggling to make ends meet, our politicians were obsessing not over ways to help them but how to deliver Scottish independence and Brexit. And despite both referendums, these two governments remained dominated by constitutional questions.

As multiple crises hit Scotland in recent years, politicians focussed their attentions on Brexit and Scottish independence (Picture: Jack Taylor)As multiple crises hit Scotland in recent years, politicians focussed their attentions on Brexit and Scottish independence (Picture: Jack Taylor)
As multiple crises hit Scotland in recent years, politicians focussed their attentions on Brexit and Scottish independence (Picture: Jack Taylor) | Getty Images

The last Conservative government’s focus on immigration – in a sense a continuation of the Brexit debate – as if it was the source of all our problems distracted them from other more pressing problems, such as the state of the NHS and the economy. Meanwhile, almost unnoticed, migrants were actually propping up a faltering economy by filling job vacancies, and the numbers of people not working due to long-term sickness in the UK hit a record high of 2.83 million earlier this year.

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Cynics say that politicians are all the same and can’t do much anyway. However, one does not need to borrow Salmond’s rose-tinted glasses to imagine a government that does its job well, rather than relying on empty populist promises, can make a real difference. Perhaps not the former First Minister’s vision of Nirvana, but much, much better than this.

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