Starting over
You can't avoid rows with the row-seeking SNP, but Middle Scotland would still like to see the new PM try and engage - here's how.
NICOLA Sturgeon has promised to work with the Prime Minister. “There will be plenty of political issues on which Liz Truss and I disagree but we can, I hope, find areas of agreement because it is important that we try to maximise those in the interests of the people we serve,” the First Minister said on Monday. It is all very welcome. But I detect more than a few rolling eyes in the corridors of Whitehall. Mrs Sturgeon has not exactly cultivated a reputation in and around the corridors of power as someone who you can trust.
Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former adviser, takes up the story. In the early days of the pandemic in 2020, the devolved governments joined the UK Government to discuss next steps. But trust evaporated. “What happened was that, as soon as we had these meetings, Nicola Sturgeon would just go straight out and announce what she wanted straight afterwards,” Mr Cummings later said. Without any trust, you ended up, according to Mr Cummings with “these completely Potemkin (fake) meetings without anyone digging into the reality and the detail because everybody thought that as soon as the meeting has finished, everybody is going to just pop up on TV and start babbling.” There are two sides to every story, of course, and Mrs Sturgeon would doubtless argue that she had every right to update the public in Scotland immediately about what was going on. But there can be no real argument that relations between Edinburgh and London are uniquely strained, and that Mrs Sturgeon’s modus operandi is a key factor. It is still recalled how, in 2017, Mrs Sturgeon breezily disclosed the contents of a confidential conversation with former Labour leader Kezia Dugdale in order to gain a headline in a pre-election general election debate. These things don’t go un-noticed. I would guess that the advice to Mrs Truss this week when it comes to the First Minister of Scotland will be to sup with a long spoon.
At some point this week, a phone call between Mrs Truss and Mrs Sturgeon will be arranged. And despite Mrs Truss’s barbs at Mrs Sturgeon during the summer (she described her as an “attention seeker” who should be ignored) a cordial read-out can be expected. But as Scotland and the rest of the UK prepares for a coming economic storm the like of which few of us have ever experienced, the question is whether the lack of trust that exists between the two sides can be ameliorated, or whether the dreary cold war between London and Edinburgh will continue to the detriment of us all. For make no mistake, a lack of collaboration and cooperation between the UK and Scottish Governments will only weaken Britain’s ability to emerge from this crisis in a stronger position.
First off, it’s perhaps important not to be too starry-eyed or naïve. Mrs Sturgeon has a flagging political project to run, on which the clock is now ticking. She has staked everything on having a monumental row with London over another referendum on independence. There is every reason to assume she will not be exactly bending over backwards to show that her relationship with Mrs Truss over the coming months is sweetness and light. As she prepares for a general election in 2024 which will be powered solely on the nationalist jet fuel of grievance and resentment, the last thing she needs is peace and goodwill.
Yet, at the same time, as she showed earlier this week, Mrs Sturgeon knows that Scots will not take kindly to endless politicking, especially as the winter bites. She knows she must pay some heed of the bigger picture. Unfortunately for her, most people in “middle Scotland” are not enormously political, are not that bothered just now about the arguments for Scottish independence or the Union, and would prefer simply that the various layers of government which oversee billions of pounds of public spending find a way to easing the enormous challenges they are having to confront.
This is Mrs Truss’s opportunity. She has already set out a twin-track plan: immediate help on bills this winter, and then a plan to boost energy security over the medium term. In Scotland, she should relentlessly be seeking to find ways to show how these goals are achieved through a more effective and functional Union. Here are some ideas.
First up, is the delivery of two new Freeports in Scotland, which are already in the pipeline. The ports will have tax-free status and are designed to provide a magnet for investment. The UK and Scottish Governments have already agreed to support them jointly. Mrs Truss’s first visit to Scotland should be to announce jointly with the Scottish Government which two bids have won.
In my view, one should be the Aberdeen and Peterhead bid which has made an excellent case to go ahead. So, as part of the second order of business, Mrs Truss should arrange to head to Aberdeen to discuss next steps for the North Sea. In a post-Ukraine world, it is now clear we will need to dig deep into Britain’s remaining oil and gas reserves. The new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is understood to be keen to permit dozens more exploration licences in the North Sea. The Truss Government should welcome Mrs Sturgeon in to discuss how the North Sea is utilised to help Britain become more energy secure, and also to examine how the impact of the increase in production can be mitigated – perhaps through new carbon capture schemes.
And, thirdly, Mrs Truss should also be keen to bring all the devolved governments and English Mayors together to discuss how to achieve energy independence through the rise of renewables. The former leader of the Scottish Greens, Robin Harper (who, unlike his extremist successors, believes in the value of the Union) has proposed a “COPUK” summit under which all parts of the UK could agree a plan for the next wave of green energy generation and supply. This would show Britain’s long-term commitment to cheaper, greener energy, and how Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland achieve it quicker by working together. It should include a commitment to reform the National Grid to make it cheaper to get renewable electricity from less populated areas of the country like Scotland to heavily populated England.
Having done all this, Mrs Truss will then be in a stronger position to make the point that, in times of economic peril, Scotland benefits from the security of the United Kingdom. As with the furlough scheme, Mrs Truss’s soon-to-be-announced plan to freeze energy bills speaks for itself.
Overwhelmingly, the public mood is for practical and positive political leadership that focusses on trying to make the country work for once. The case for Britain does not depend on whether Mrs Truss finds some legislative wheeze to deny another independence referendum. It relies on convincing people across the UK, and most obviously Scotland, that it is a country they would like to live in.
Mrs Truss has an unenviable to-do list as she begins work today but this basic task should be the one she sets herself to achieving.
ENDS
This article first appeared in the Scottish Daily Mail 7th September 2022