Scottish Household Survey and SNP's response reveals why populism is a recipe for disaster – Scotsman comment

Just 40 per cent of people were satisfied with local health services, schools and public transport, down from 66 per cent in 2011

Populist politicians tend to be good at stirring up emotions, waging culture wars and exploiting nationalistic sentiments, but not so good at running the country. Therefore, the newly published Scottish Household Survey, which interviewed about 10,500 households last year, is not that much of a surprise.

It found just 40 per cent of people were satisfied with the quality of local health services, schools and public transport. In 2019, before Covid hit, the figure was 53 per cent, and the pandemic has likely played a part. However, in 2011, 66 per cent were happy with these three important services, so this decline is a long-term one that cannot be explained away simply by reference to Covid.

To be fair to Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville, she didn’t just use this excuse. She had others too: Westminster “austerity and economic mismanagement” and Brexit. And, of course, she added: “To truly transform... public services, we need the powers of independence.”

So people wanting a decent health service will just have to wait until the SNP takes us to its promised land. That's the reason why things are set to get even worse, nothing to do with the people in charge. Or so they’d have us believe.

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak’s populist Tories are running around in circles trying to find a way to send a few hundred asylum seekers to Rwanda at a cost of nearly £300 million because they think this will deter migrants from crossing the Channel. Given these people are prepared to risk their lives, this seems optimistic. There is also scant evidence the policy will work.

That doesn’t seem to matter. The whole affair creates headlines, stirs up nationalist emotions and convinces people that this, not the cost-of-living crisis or the NHS, is the big issue we should all be concerned about. The flaw – and it is, sometimes, a fatal one – in such populist politics is that real-world problems tend to build up.

Both Scotland and the UK desperately need politicians committed to reversing this process, people who respond to the steady degradation of vital services with contrition and action, not glib soundbites.