kenlaidlaw

This is an idea I’ve had, for a while, I was hoping the new Unionist party would take up the baton but it died a death, which was not unexpected.  In the absence of any other alternatives I thought I’d post up my ideas I wrote at the time of the last general election.  I understand how much work this would take, I have a very big to do list regarding it and some of it has even been started, however I also don’t think I am the person to bring this to fruition.  But someone should!

(Not a party, Yet!)

The Scottish Moderates Party

“Here for the day job”

The Scottish Moderate Party will be a grass roots party that aims to promote and fight for Scotland’s interests within the union of the U.K.  Its aims are to promote progressive policies that build on Scotland’s economic strength and also promotes the fairer society that we want to live in.  To that end it could be described as a left of centre party (as pretty much all UK parties are) that believes in free market economics and strong social integration and participation.

We will contest Scottish council elections and Holyrood elections but will not stand at a general election level risking the split of the unionist vote further.  We do not wish to stand in a parliament election where we could never hold a majority therefor limiting our representation for those who had voted for us. We also believe that success in Holyrood, changing Scotland for all our benefits will negate the need for representation in UK wide elections.

If you are an independence supporter this probably isn’t the party for you but please read on as I’d like to mention two points, the first that making Scotland stronger with our policies will put Scotland in a stronger position should independence happen and secondly we hope that our policies will show you that independence is not required to make it the place you believe it should be and that within the union we can do even better than on our own.  The failures of the current union are the failures of its political leaders not the union itself.  Our aim is to prove that by action  in resolving the concerns of the public that the current ruling party in Scotland has ignored, the union can and will be a force for good under the right stewardship.

Our polices will be aimed at reducing poverty, promoting economic strength and boosting industry through specific targeted polices that will show immediate impacts on those affected.  All of these polices will be fully costed and based on evidence with regards to solid social and economic theories.

We will develop polices on Education, NHS, Security, etc as a matter of course but these will be broader ideas with less specific remits outside our targeted programs.  Policy suggestions will go through several stages of research and membership approval before being part of our main policy suite.  We will produce a running total of the costs of our policies starting at negative £350 million, the underspend of the Scottish Government on average over the last few years.

We will not campaign on an anti-independence stance, we have no need.  We are in a union that we are happy to stay part of so our efforts are better served focusing on our policies to make lives in Scotland Better, you could say, we are here to “DO THE DAY JOB“.

It is unlikely that everything this party aims to achieve you will agree with but we hope that it will offer a balance you can accept to let Scotland move forward.

Why?

Why a new party?  Aren’t you just splitting the unionist vote?

If we want to remove the SNP and get Scotland on track again then we can’t continue to repeat the practice of previous elections.  The reality is the vote is already split.  Tactical voting won’t work, there are too many Scots who just can’t vote for “another” of the traditional parties for a variety of reasons.  The traditional parties are also lost in their own ways and don’t seem to have any intention of changing their approach, this will lead to exactly the same result.  They do say the definition of stupidity is repeating the same behaviours while expecting different results.  We also understand that we can’t be everything to everyone.  We do believe that we can at least be palatable to everyone without the historical baggage.   Not campaigning in UK elections also affords the opportunity for voting for your traditional allegiances without us impacting that choice.

Why the Scottish Moderates?

The word moderates has been used in Scotland several times over the last few centuries relating to groups that were seen or saw themselves as progressive. In the 1930’s they dominated Glasgow council and then became the progressive party, along similar lines as the Edinburgh Progressive party.

Going back further than this they were a large part of the “Scottish Enlightenment” and were involved in many progressive disciplines although are often also associated with various church factions..

To bring it back to the modern day, this party aims to unite a broad church (for want of a better word) using progressive ideas that cross traditional party lines with new ways of thinking that suit the modern world. It has none of the connotations that hinder the current established parties and its name does not lend itself to the idea of supporting any particular modern groupings.

Policy ideas

While we will develop a broad range and understanding of top level ideas of how we manage various aspects of government, initially as a party our aim will be to focus on 6 areas of real change within the system at any one time.  These policies will be part of an area we want to impprove and be subject to change as areas are completed or in a process of ongoing improvement not requiring new policy interventions.  These will be the messages we take out to the public in a concise and clear manner.

They will go through a process of idea, discussion, research and then a decision as to whether or not they are feasible.  This will be done by the members, agreed by the members by a 60% majority vote and then carried forward.  Once we have the first 6 they are set until we have achieved one then the next available/ready idea will be put on the list.

We are looking for ideas and help costing policies, this is not a good news only party, if it won’t work we won’t pretend it can.

A few ideas of the sort of policies I think would appeal to a broad section of voters are as follows:-

• Reducing foodbank usage by 40%, this is roughly the number of users who are sent to foodbanks by late benefit payments.  We should be able to resolve this easily by setting up a new benefit that guarantees a set amount, no questions asked for the first 3-4 months whenever circumstances change or a new claimant is on benefits.  If once the claims are settled, claimant’s would get anything extra they would have been due but not have to pay back anything extra they had been paid.  Most of this is money that we would probably be paying out anyway so the costs should not be too excessive for this kind of policy and within the remits of the SG’s powers.
• Wiping out fuel poverty – we live in an energy rich country this should be a great political win supported by the vast majority of the country.  I have done some back of the fag packet calculations on this that would suggest somewhere in the region of £200 million pounds.  However, anything you spend on this would go straight onto GDP and be impacted by all the usual multipliers.  The mechanism would be around taking people on benefits fuel bills under local government control, removing pay as you go meters where the poorest pay the highest rates in society for their electricity.  The idea would be able to pay 25-50% of the energy bills based on the average household, reducing the burden on the individual household but also the fear that they were running up big bills.
• Increasing nursing training numbers, lowering the entrance requirements and looking to reintroduce bursaries/bonuses for taking up the training.  This coupled with a cap on how much over current nursing grade fees agencies can charge would be a popular policy.  While this is obviously a potential large cost it can be argued as reducing costs in the long term with relative ease.  Your usual NHS discussions continue but this is a concrete and focused policy that people believe would make a positive difference.
• A focus on productivity rather than increasing taxes.  Through education, infrastructure investment and an investment plan for SME’s specifically focused on productivity.  Specifically targeting SME’s for investment in niche Scottish industries – set amount for investment available to those who present the opportunities for productivity growth.
• An absolute focus on Education, taking our education back to the level it once was – speaking to experts and with their help and advice going back to core STEM subjects.  In terms of further education a much larger focus on industry related vocational qualifications and apprenticeships.  A real and specific measurable plan to improve in this area.
• A war on drugs and the impact they have on peoples lives.  Not doing nothing because one tool has been removed by the UK is unacceptable.  Safe rooms are part of a larger suite of tools to solve drug issues, the SNP have chosen to do virtually nothing because they didn’t get to do one item on a much larger agenda.  Producing a full suite of actions to tackle this problem would be very popular, and deemed achievable with a reasonable budget.

All of the above are examples, areas that I believe the public think need improving and that I also believe need improving.  You may think there are other ideas or disagree with these.  We won’t find policies that everyone will love, but we do hope they are palatable enough to stay for the policies you do like. There are many more, but we can do simple things to make Scotland better and hopefully the UK.  I’m fully aware of what this would take, especially were it to be ready for 2021, but it isn’t impossible but would require a massive surge in support before it even got underway.  It also doesn’t have to happen all at once, we could start as a list party and grow from there or even as a pressure group.

I don’t know if this will work!

What I do know is that repeating the past or retaining  current approaches definitely will not!