Review of the SNP Manifesto
for the Scottish Parliamentary election 2021
The SNP have published their manifesto for the Scottish Parliamentary election 2021.
One minor peeve is that the "Download the SNP Manifesto here" link goes to a shitty screen reader rather than just downloading the PDF. But you can download from the screen reader. Here's the title page:
Graphic design
The layout and graphic design on this manifesto are good, if nothing spectacular. It's a good, workmanlike effort that does the job well without being too flashy. Which is probably the look they wanted to achieve.
Unlike the Green manifesto it is pleasant to read.
Now onto the contents...
Coronavirus
The manifesto says:
To do this, we will commission a statutory, person-centred and human rights based public inquiry into the handling of the Coronavirus pandemic in Scotland.
I very much hope governments around the world learn lessons from Coronavirus. I don't know what a "non person-centred" inquiry would look like, so I can only asssume that "person-centred" is intended as an applause light.
As part of learning lessons, we will also establish a Standing Committee on Pandemics, bringing together scientists and clinicians to advise us on the future risks and to ensure we are as prepared as it is possible to be.
What needs to be done is what the military calls doctrine, i.e. to define a standard response to situations of this sort. This means at the start of the next pandemic, the government will have a plan regarding closing borders, airports, restricting movements, mandating masks, setting up temporary hospitals, etc, and the plan can be immediately put into action. Obviously how the next pandemic plays out won't be the same as this time, but they will at least have procedures that are a basis to start from.
Independence
The SNP obviously favour independence:
The SNP believes that it should be people in Scotland – no matter where they come from - and not Boris Johnson or any Westminster government, who must have the right to decide the sort of country we should become after the pandemic.
They've published a bill:
In order to provide that opportunity, the Scottish Government has published a draft bill for an independence referendum.
f the SNP is returned to government and there is a simple majority in the Scottish Parliament for that bill after the election there can be no moral or democratic justification for Boris Johnson or any Westminster government to obstruct the right of the people of Scotland to decide their own future.
This seems to imply that if there is a majority for independence in the next parliament, they will have the referendum no matter what Boris says.
But then they say this:
The SNP is clear the referendum must be capable of bringing about independence and therefore it must be accepted as legitimate and constitutional at home and abroad
Which seems to imply that if Boris says "no" they will simply back down.
As the Scottish Government, we will discuss with the UK Government the necessary transfer of power to put a referendum beyond legal challenge and in the hands of the Scottish Parliament. For the UK government to refuse to do so would be both undemocratic and unsustainable. [my emphasis]
Yes but what're you going to do about it?
If the democratically elected Scottish Parliament passes the referendum bill and the UK Government then attempts to block it by taking legal action we will vigorously defend the Parliament’s will [my emphasis] in order to protect the democratic rights of the Scottish people
What does "vigorously defend the Parliament’s will" mean? What specifically will the SNP do if Boris says "no"? I don't know, and I'm not sure they know either. Although maybe part of their vagueness is that they don't want Boris Johnson to know their plans. In practise I expect they will play it by ear.
Citizens' Assembly
Going forward we will run annual Citizens’ Assemblies to look at some of the more complex issues we face as a country. We will bring together a cross section of people from across our country to discuss topics such as reform of Council Tax and the role of local government, assisted dying and decriminalisation of drugs.
All these citizens Assemblies -- you don't say how the people on them will be picked. Because I have long experience of politicians being duplicitous slimy lying bastards, I must assume the worst: the SNP intend to pack the Citizens' Assemblies with "the right sort of people" so they will give the answers the SNP want.
No. If you are going to do this the way to do it would be to have an upper house of the Scottish parliament -- call it the Senate of Scotland -- with citizens chosen by sortition. They could serve a term of 3 years, with 1/6 of them being replaced every 6 months.
Ahead of a referendum on Scotland’s future we would also ask a Citizens’ Assembly to consider some of the key issues about the kind of country we want Scotland to be - for example, social security, taxation or migration policy.
We will also encourage local Citizens’ Assemblies that consider community issues and propose local solution
Again these must be chosen by sortition, not on the basis of being mates with SNP apparatchiks. (Note that I am not saying that is what would happen, merely that it is what might happen.)
Council Tax
We are committed to reforming the Council Tax to make it fairer. Cross party talks on a replacement for the council tax were underway, but had to be postponed due to the pandemic. We will ask a Citizens’ Assembly to consider the way forward alongside the question of wider powers for local government.
They want to change Council Tax, but don't know how. This is a cop-out. I think they should in the short term change the bands so it is no longer regressive, and in the long term replace it with a land value tax.
Tech Sector
Supporting Scotland’s Tech Sector
We will implement the recommendations of the Logan Review to raise our tech sector to world-class status including the proposed creation of a national network of world class facilities - backed by £30 million - to develop new tech start-ups that can grow into companies of scale offering high quality, well paid jobs.
Makes sense. The Logan Review is here btw.
20-minute Neighbourhoods
20-minute Neighbourhoods
We will take forward our ambitions for 20-minute neighbourhoods: the creation of liveable, accessible places, with thriving local economies, where people can meet their daily needs within a 20 minute walk – enabling people to live better, healthier lives and supporting our net zero ambitions.
The Greens talk of 15 minute neighbourhoods, the SNP of 20 minute ones. I prefer the Greens here, since a 15 minute walk is less of a psychological barrier than a 20 minute walk.
Devolution
Devolution of Employment Law
We will continue to call for the devolution of employment law to allow us to act, but in the meantime we will do all we can with our limited powers to protect employees from these practices in Scotland.
It makes sense for employment law to be devolved. (I think it makes sense for lots of things to be devolved). What worries me is that indyref2 goes ahead, independence fails, and Scotland doesn't get any more powers. I'd like to see more devolution if Scotland does remain part of the UK. Obviously this isn't what the SNP are focused on -- their focus is on independence. But more devolution is better than the status quo.
Education
To ensure consistency across the country, we will develop statutory guidance on school uniform policies - ending expensive insistence on exclusive suppliers
Good. Having exclusive suppliers for school uniforms is self-evidently a rip off and needs to be ended.
Gaelic Medium Education (GME) is a key driver for ensuring that Gaelic continues to thrive and grow in both urban and rural areas. GME education is at its most successful when it is fully immersive for pupils, and when an entire school career can be delivered through the medium of Gaelic.
We will encourage the creation of new GME primary and secondary schools across Scotland, backed by investment to increase the number of teachers who can teach in the medium of Gaelic.
GME schools should be opened to the extent that there is demand for them.
We will also bring forward a new Scottish Languages Bill which takes further steps to support Gaelic, acts on the Scots language and recognises that Scotland is a multilingual society.
Given that more Scots speak Scots than Gaelic, and there are Gaelic-Medium Education schools, it seems to me that if demand exists for them, there should be Scots-Medium Education schools. To those that argue that Scots is not a language but merely a dialect of English, I reply that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy and so state recognition of the Scots language promotes it from a dialect to a language.
But why stop there? Some parents might want to send their child to a schools that specialises in arts and music education; some might want to send their child to a school on the Montessori or Steiner-Waldorf models, which give children more autonomy than traditional schools; or some might want to sent their child to a school that specialises in STEM subjects.
They should be allowed to do so, taking their child's share of local authority funding with them. If there are enough parents in an area who want a particular type of school, then they would be able to group together pool their funding and set one up. Most parent probably think the existing local authority schools are fine, but for the ones that don't, they would have an effective right to walk away from them.
Four day week
Covid-19 changed the way we work almost overnight. As we recover from the pandemic, we want to do more to support people achieve a healthy work-life balance. We also want to keep the total number of people in employment high. As part of this, we will establish a £10 million fund to allow companies to pilot and explore the benefits of a four day working week. We will use the learning from this to consider a more general shift to a four day working week as and when Scotland gains full control of employment rights.
This makes sense. I also think that some people could work at home for part of the week. If someone was working a 4 day week, and 1 day was working at home, then they would only be travelling to work on 3 days, which would reduce rush hour congestion.