What We Want

by Rab Bruce’s Spider

 

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I had an interesting chat with a friend recently. During conversation, he mentioned that we disagree over politics, but when we got into it, we learned that what we disagree about is how to achieve what we want.

 

It turned out that, like the majority of people, what we want is fairly basic. So here’s a short list of the main things we agreed on.

 

To live in a peaceful and safe environment.

Good schools, colleges and universities to educate our children.

Free NHS care for everyone.

Social care for those who need it.

Adequately resourced Emergency Services for when things do go wrong.

Fair pay for work, and employment for everyone who wants it.

A Social Security system which provides a safety net for when things go wrong.

A reliable public transport system.

 

I don’t think there’s anything too controversial in that, although my friend was a bit sceptical about the Social Security one since he claims there are too many scroungers. He did admit, though, that he has some elderly relatives who have recently been able to claim additional benefits without which they could not cope.

 

But if these aims are so desirable, why do we disagree? Well, it’s about the method of achieving them. My friend has always voted Conservative, and although he became a little disenchanted by the fiasco of Tory government in recent years, he’s very much against Labour and cannot abide the thought of Scotland leaving the UK, so there is no way he’ll ever vote SNP. He is now stuck with a choice of the Lib Dems or Reform, and he’s leaning towards the latter. He would not accept my arguments that such parties do not actually help the majority of the public since they are mostly in it for the benefit of themselves and their friends. I cited the Tory Government as a classic example and insisted that moving further to the right will only recreate those problems, and probably exacerbate them. He remains unconvinced, and didn’t like my own choices for the way forward.

 

Naturally, I think Scotland would be better off as a normal, self-governing country. I also believe that, if we ever achieve that status, which sadly looks unlikely at the moment, we need to do some radical things. I’d like to see a focus on a Wellbeing economy rather than chasing spurious GDP targets, and I do think that a Universal Basic Income would be worth introducing. Not only would this provide a safety net while replacing all sorts of current Benefits like State Pension, Sickness Benefit and more, it would allow employers to reduce the pay they give to employees by a similar amount, thus freeing up money for further investment.  Affordability will always be thrown up at UBI, but experiments have shown that spending money this way actually cuts overall costs to the public purse.

 

Unlike my friend, I believe we should try to transition to a high pay, high tax economy so that everyone can look forward to a decent standard of living with good social care. He has very much been convinced by the “Taxes are bad” rhetoric so prevalent in the UK in recent decades.

 

Will we ever see eye to eye? I very much doubt it. The only thing that might change his mind is if Nigel Farage does become Prime Minister and proceeds to turn the UK into a right wing basket case. By then, though, it may be too late for Scotland.

 

I’m no huge fan of the current SNP Government in Scotland, but if we want to avoid being dragged even further to the right, Yessers will need to bite the bullet and make sure we return a pro-Indy Government at the next Holyrood elections. At the moment, that’s looking less and less likely, so let’s hope someone in the SNP comes up with something substantial to enthuse the electorate and garner wider support for Scotland’s cause.