With all the huffing and puffing (mine included) following the Con/Lib Dem Coalition kicking Holtham’s recommendations in to the long grass, it’s worth reading Gerry Hassan over at Our Kingdom on the less than positive effect of the new Scotland Bill with some Calman recommendations included will have on the Scotland for some perspective.
He writes ‘These proposals are meant to widen fiscal accountability, aid Scottish economic competitiveness and growth, and break the pork barrel nature of Scottish politics. Sadly they do none of these, and are dangerously ill-thought out policies which would damage Scotland and its finances.
Despite calls from Jim Wallace, Advocate General, that ‘Calman is not a cherry picking exercise’, but ‘a package’, it would be welcome if the UK Government treated it as such and put the tax powers on the back burner.
Calman’s tax powers would have damaging consequences. If the Scottish Government reduced income tax to stimulate the economy its own finances would suffer while the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer’s revenues would benefit. If the Scottish Government raised the rate of income tax to increase its revenues this would deflate the Scottish economy and reduce revenues going to the UK Government.
He goes on to say ‘Calman is a technocratic, elite based fix and interpretation of Scottish politics. When it was launched Wendy Alexander said that ‘Kilbrandon, Scottish Constitutional Convention, Calman, this is how we do our constitutional change’.
This is a partial view, for Calman has had little to no public engagement and involvement, and one which carries little resonance with the public. Calman does not offer us the prospect of a popular story or narrative for our nation, but instead flawed administrative tinkering.
Calman is not the answer for Scotland’s economy, democracy or future, but what is, if independence as it has been conventionally understood is not on offer in the foreseeable future either?
Maybe the solution lies in shifting from the politics of post-modern independence and the pretence of statehood and valuing of symbols which currently characterises much of modern Scotland.
Instead we could embrace a politics of post-nationalist independence and inter-independence, which would entail Scotland developing new arrangements with the other nations of the UK, sharing sovereignty, and recognising the importance of the English dimension.
Many conservatives, pessimists and naysayers will say that such a politics is not practicable, and that instead we should focus on the deliverable plans of Calman. This is profoundly wrong. The old notions of sovereignty and power which define Westminster and Britain have brought about the multiple crises: economic, democratic and geo-political, which shape our modern society.
And end’s ‘Scotland needs a new story as a nation, society and democracy and Calman is not the answer nor for the immediate period is independence. We need a radical, far-reaching set of proposals for Scotland, which engage the public imagination and involve unlike Calman or ‘the national conversation’, genuine public engagement, and aid the emergence of a new set of arrangements for the whole UK.
The UK has not worked for many years, for the majority of people living in it have been dominated by the interests of the South East and the City, to the detriment of Scotland and most people elsewhere.
The existing British political system needs to be completely recast, and the most centralised state in Western Europe supplanted by arrangements more suited to a modern state and democracy. Scotland can play a major part in this democratic revolution, but only if we ditch the main elements of Calman and aim higher.
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