Cooperation not competition to support booster rollout

UK & Scottish government ministers should agree resource-sharing to deliver roll-out, and reopen mass vaccination centres.

The emergence of the Omicron variant has underlined the need for greater cooperation both globally and at home.

Our response must match the threat of the variant. The greater the risk, the greater the need for cooperation.

Unfortunately, we have already seen manufactured spats between our leaders – we have come too far to allow differences to dictate progress.

Greater cooperation between our two government’s would deliver greater results – and a failure to do so costs us dear.

Last year, research by Our Scottish Future has shown Scotland initially lagged behind in testing capability. Complex logistics also harmed the effectiveness of Test and Trace. We cannot allow this to happen again.

This means greater cooperation and coordination and less politics to improve results.

In the last few days, we are already seeing a breakdown in our systems. Reports have emerged today that centres have not yet operationally moved to the new JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) booster guidance which now permits a booster 3 months after their second vaccination.

As a result, people are being wrongly turned away despite having booked a booster – with some being told they need to wait 24 weeks, double the time of the new JCVI guidance

As a matter of urgency, our governments must strive to abolish the layers of bureaucracy between the JVCI guidance and vaccination centres, as every single person wrongly turned away weakens our defences against the pandemic.

To do so, we should also be reopening mass vaccination centres which allow people to walk in – eliminating a potential obstacle to vaccination, with both UK and Scottish Governments putting their hands to the wheel.

Any purported problems with staffing could be resolved by government’s sharing of resources, with health boards financially and logistically empowered by government.

It is not only operationally that we must improve. Entirely separate communication strategies to combat the same opponent only sows confusion and weakens our defences.

In our vaccine paper last year, we showed that over half of Scots were confused about what Covid guidance to follow, having been bombarded with different messages from different governments.

No one should be disadvantaged in vaccine or booster access because of where they live. There should be consistent standards and targets across the UK. We need to learn our previous lessons and consistently apply them. As the virus evolves so must our response.

This week began with a political spat and should end with an agreement on deeper cooperation.

Back ‘COPUK’ to Deliver Climate Neutral Scotland

The UK Government, devolved nations, and regional mayors should convene a ‘COPUK’ summit to accelerate the drive towards a carbon-neutral nation, Our Scottish Future is proposing today.

The call is supported today by former Scottish Green party leader Robin Harper and two of England’s metro mayors who are urging UK Ministers to bring together politicians from across the nation to agree a joined-up plan to slash emissions.

Support COP UK

The UK Government, devolved nations, and regional mayors should convene a ‘COPUK’ summit to accelerate the drive towards a carbon-neutral nation, Our Scottish Future is proposing today.

The call is supported today by former Scottish Green party leader Robin Harper and two of England’s metro mayors who are urging UK Ministers to bring together politicians from across the nation to agree a joined-up plan to slash emissions.

An Our Scottish Future report last month found that carbon cuts in Scotland are stagnating and said deeper cooperation between Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland was urgently required, including a new Office of Climate Responsibility.

Metro Mayor of Liverpool City Region Steve Rotherham and the Mayor of South Yorkshire Dan Jarvis today say a shared approach by all layers of government in the UK would help all parts of the nation.

Under the proposal, a ‘COPUK’ summit would agree a regulatory framework for the green transition and make sure UK spending is distributed equitably across the UK.

Mr Harper said: “The COP26 conference in Glasgow demonstrated once again that we cannot make change happen in the world without making it together. New global commitments on coal, on deforestation, and on support for developing nations have emerged in the last two weeks. They are all examples of nations laying aside their narrow self-interest to work for the common good.”

“We must ensure that this legacy is kept alive on our own shores over the coming months. None of the nations of the United Kingdom are currently doing enough to meet exacting targets to reduce carbon emissions. All of them – Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland – will only achieve their goals if they work in step – by bringing together expertise, finance, and resources to drive the green revolution.”

“We therefore call for a ‘COPUK’ to be staged within the next 12 months so that the UK Government, the devolved governments, and regional mayors can coordinate the historic step-change to a carbon neutral Britain.”

Mr Rotheram said: “Earlier this month, leaders from around the world came together at COP26 to try and chart our planet’s course toward net zero. Throughout those two weeks, the Prime Minister and government spoke a lot about co-operation and uniting in the face of the biggest threat any of us will ever face.”

“Today, we’re calling on the government to show that same spirit of common purpose by bringing together leaders from within the UK to help supercharge our own march to net zero. We should be setting an example for rest of the world to follow.”

“Mayors, councils and local leaders are at the forefront of the Green Industrial Revolution. COP UK would allow us all to put party politics aside and work together for the good of our planet. “

“I can think of nowhere better to host that conference than the Liverpool City Region. From large scale decarbonisation projects like Mersey Tidal Power and HyNet, to grassroots engagement and empowerment, we are showing the rest of the country how to take capture the public’s imagination while take meaningful action to save the environment.”

Mr Jarvis said: “To reach Net Zero we desperately need local decision-making backed up by a nation-wide strategy. Just as world leaders came together in Glasgow to set out plans for the world, we now need leaders across the UK to come together to map out a road to net zero for Britain.”

Support COP UK

Edinburgh Chooses to Make the Positive Case for Scotland and the UK

On Saturday, Our Scottish Future held our first in-person event since the start of the pandemic. Entitled ‘Finding Common Cause’, a hall-full of hardy souls braved the Edinburgh weather to huddle inside the Augustine United Church for two hours of debate and discussion on Scotland’s place in the UK – a reminder that getting together in a warm room remains the best form of social media going.
 
Local politicians Ian Murray, Christine Jardine and Daniel Johnson kicked off proceedings with thoughtful and engaging insights into how Scottish politics has felt like for them over the last decade or so. We were also fortunate to have former Scottish Green party leader Robin Harper, who wound things up for us. In between times, audience members offered up some high-quality reflections on where we go from here. It’s hard to summarise everybody’s viewpoint in a short blog, but some themes emerged from contributions across the floor.
Ian Murray MP, Christine Jardine MP and Daniel Johnson MSP at Our Scottish Future's Finding Common Cause event, November 2021

There is a thirst for a better, more positive argument about Scotland and the UK

Asked about the level of the political debate on independence, Ian Murray declared simply: “I’m bored with it”. However, when asked to talk about the case for the UK and how it can be improved,  he, his fellow politicians and the room as a whole was bursting with ideas and insights. In short, if the event is anything to go by, there is a real thirst out there for a better way to ‘do’ Scottish politics that decisively breaks from the old stale shouting match of the last decade or so. In the words of one of those present, we need to “create the positive vision – to connect with people, all people so that we can help to build this together.”

The case for the UK should also be about how we can deliver change, now

Many people noted how, thanks to devolution, Scotland had the powers to deliver radical change on the things we care about most – a fairer society, a greener future, better health (highlighting this is the purpose of our site over at wecan.scot). So the case for the UK, they felt, should lean heavily on the fact we can get on with making change happen, right now. Others noted the positive signs of the UK itself changing – as more powers and money are shifted out of London and into the regions of England. Scotland, it was felt, could make “common cause” with people across England on issues from economic growth to carbon reductions.

“Facts” aren’t enough

The room debated this at some length: some felt that the economic and political facts of independence and the Union were mostly irrelevant in what is often a debate based on emotions and feelings. Others felt that to ignore these facts would be a mistake. But if there was a consensus it was the view that facts can’t do it all – and that people on the side of Scotland remaining in the UK should recognise that the case for the UK also rests on an emotional attachment – and how it isn’t incompatible with a sense of Scottish patriotism and pride.

“This was a fantastic event that focussed on the positives – looking at what we can do today in Scotland and across the UK to make a more positive case for cooperation. I have booked myself in for St Andrews already!”

– Robin Harper, Former Leader of the Scottish Greens

It is way past time to listen and understand the concerns and anxieties of pro-independence supporters

As one lady put it, we should start with the distrust felt by many pro-independence Scots towards the UK and then go on to find the common ground and common aspirations we all share. Questioning opponents’ motivations should also be banned – it is time to acknowledge in good faith that people hold different views on the constitution for good reasons. Said one: “We need to listen, acknowledge how other people feel – their anger, distrust and start there. We need to find common ground, common aspirations and vision. Non-confrontational, understanding tone.”

Will leaders please stand up?

Finally, there was a general feeling that the pro-UK side needed a “figurehead”. With little enthusiasm for the current UK Government, many people in the room made the point that there needed to be leaders who were prepared to set out a positive, principled case for the UK.

Attendees at Our Scottish Future's Finding Common Cause event in Edinburgh on 6 November 2021
We’re holding more of these discussion events over the winter months – with our next session in St Andrews on December 10th. If the weekend is anything to go by, there is a real appetite for thoughtful, reflective discussion on this subject. 
 
Please join us!

Report Backs A New ‘UK Office of Climate Responsibility’ to End Flatlining Carbon Cuts

Figures show Scottish carbon reductions “stagnating”

A new report by Our Scottish Future calls for the creation of a new green network of UK institutions to cut carbon emissions and warns current targets in Scotland will be missed without urgent action.  

Written by sustainability expert Dr Peter Wood, the new paper – entitled “A Net Negative Nation – hitting Scotland’s climate targets” – recommends the UK and devolved governments jointly set up a new ‘Office of Climate Responsibility’ to test every action by government, the private sector and civil society against climate change targets.

Like the Office of Budget Responsibility, it would provide rapid reaction in each parliament of the UK on whether Ministers were living up to green pledges. 

The paper also backs a UK wide Agency on Climate Cooperation– chaired by the First Minister of Scotland – to direct investment on the coming green revolution and calls on all Governments to do more to inspire community action, and individual and social activism.
 
Writing the foreword to the paper, former Scottish Green party leader Robin Harper, the chair of OSF’s Environmental Commission writes: “We need to co-operate rather than compete; we need constructive dialogue; and in the face of the environmental emergency that looms, we should be abandoning the toxic binary politics of today in favour of constructive dialogue.” 
 
The call for a UK wide shake-up follows warnings this week by Chris Stark, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) that targets set by the Scottish Government to slash carbon by 75% of 1990 levels by 2030 are likely to be “enormously challenging” without “deep cooperation with UK policies for decarbonising”. 
 
Today’s OSF report confirms official figures which show that, between 2016 and 2019, the rapid process of decarbonisation in Scotland has stalled. 

Scottish Government figures show that in 2016, 48.5 mega-tonnes of Co2 were released into the atmosphere; by 2019, the figure had fallen to just 47.8 mega-tonnes. 

The OSF report warns that the 2030 target set by the Scottish Government is implausible on current trends.  

It concludes: “The data shows that progress in reducing emissions in most sectors has stagnated. Between 2016 and 2019, the figures have flatlined. This puts the Scottish Government’s target to slash carbon emissions by 75% by 2030 into stark relief. Bluntly, if the figures for 2016-19 are repeated over the coming three years, then the legally-enshrined target set by the Scottish Parliament becomes a practical impossibility.” 

The OSF paper says a new Office for Climate Responsibility would be given legal status to ensure all government activity is compliant with net zero timescales. It would also advise on local delivery – such as the reduction in new road building. 

The paper also backs the creation of a new UK Agency for Climate Cooperation Acceleration, made up of devolved governments, English regions and the UK Government, to coordinate strategic projects across the country – such as new renewable energy projects, rail network improvements, and reforestation.  

And it urges governments to encourage a post-Covid revival of community action across the UK, in supporting voluntary groups to gain valuable skills through restoring community assets and natural heritage sites, or hosting international ‘Attenborough Scholarships’ and exchanges.  

In his foreword, Mr Harper adds: “Scotland has been handed the advantage of the biggest wind energy resource in Europe. We have already been criticised – quite rightly – for the absence of meaningful detail and lack of obvious strategies to achieve our other announced targets.  

He added: “This report by Peter Wood will help to set us on the right road, opening up a wide range of areas for discussion and the development of common strategies to take us more safely forward”. 

Download the report

Notes

Earlier this week, Mr Stark told the BBC’s Not Hot Air that the Scottish Government’s 75% target was “an enormously challenging target.” He added: “It rests on Scotland doing more and earlier than the rest of the United Kingdom. So far I haven’t seen a strategy from the Scottish Government that would deliver that. It is a very good challenge in the year of COP for the Scottish Government to come up with that but it also rests on deep cooperation with UK policies for decarbonising and I’m afraid that is another area where we are not seeing that kind of coordination.” 

Figures for Scottish emissions can be found here.

About the Author

Dr Peter Wood is a sustainability researcher with over ten years experience in policy and behaviour change. He is currently an Associate Lecturer in Environmental Studies, Science and Management at The Open University in Scotland. He lives in Edinburgh.

Four Nations, United by One Healthcare System?

Picture of Muir Gray

Muir Gray

Picture of David Kerr

David Kerr

Introduction

Over the last 18 months, the Covid pandemic has demonstrated the need for an integrated and coordinated approach to healthcare.  Across the United Kingdom, the procurement of PPE, the sharing of expertise, the development of diagnostics and the roll-out of the vaccine required health systems to work together in a joint emergency effort. This approach – where successful – is a model for how we should deliver healthcare not just during moments of crisis but as a matter of course.  This short paper calls for this model of integration to be applied across the United Kingdom NHS to the benefit of all.  

The Development of the NHS

The twentieth century’s healthcare revolution was the based on the rise of bureaucracy and the market. Big bureaucracies such as governments and drug companies, healthcare organisations like hospitals, and markets like the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries, greatly improved the means of diagnosing and treating disease. Of course, the NHS itself is a testimony to the benefits of bureaucracy, a term which has become negatively associated with inefficiency and bias, in part due to the writings of Franz Kafka and in part due to Jay and Lynn’s Yes Minister. However, bureaucracies are essential for relatively straightforward activities such as the fair and open employment of staff, and the optimal procurement of equipment and maintenance of estate, for example. 

An experiment with the market as the primary means of organising healthcare was tried in England in 1990’s, based on the belief that competition could be used to drive up standards, but the 2021 Health White Paper and Bill dismisses the market as a means of coping with the challenges that the NHS faces in the decade to come.   

Instead, the White Paper is called Integration and Innovation and uses the term ‘system’ 251 times.

This reflects a growing awareness among students of organisation about the need to build systems to meet complex challenges. The Nobel Prize for Economic Science was jointly awarded in 2008 to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson. Williamson’s contribution is set out below.

“if the market is a marvel, then why do we need firms? ​But then the question can be turned around. ​If internal organisation enjoys advantages over markets, then why is not all production carried out in one big firm?”

Elinor Ostrom focused on culture and emphasised the need for a culture of stewardship writing that 

“If those using the resources are allowed to manage those common pooled resources themselves, then sustainability is possible. They become stewards.”

Ambulance

Towards a New UK-Wide Systems Approach to Healthcare

We envisage an interdisciplinary, transnational systems approach to the delivery of healthcare across our NHS, with a system being a set of activities with a single common set of objectives which focusses not on institutions or technologies but on sub-groups of the population with the same need such as people with asthma or people with back pain or people in the last year of life for example. Systems are delivered by networks, defined by us as a geographically disparate group united by their obsessional focus on the common objectives.

The first step is neither to consider nor reinvent (yet again!) the bureaucratic structure of the NHS, but rather the populations whom we serve, as defined by need.  For example:

  • people with asthma;
  • people with  back pain;
  • people in their last year of life
  • people with heart failure
  • people with any of the many different types of cancer
  • people with diabetes
  • people with inflammatory bowel disease
  • women with endometriosis

What is needed is a system specification, or contract setting out the aim, the objectives, the criteria that will be used to measure progress or the lack of it, and the standards that should be achieved. Establishing the system specs should give voice to representatives from each of the devolved administrations, unite stakeholder patients, healthcare professionals, policy makers, economists, managers with experience of systems operations, engineers and consider harnessing military logistic expertise. The system should also have a budget bringing together all the little elements of expenditure dotted about in the various bits of structure that deal with, for example, back pain. This emphasises the role of members of the system as stewards. The system should be delivered by networks and the networks should take into account, to use the language of the military, the local history, geography and politics, with the network being the level of operational command, whereas the system is the level of strategic command.

In 2002, John E. Wennberg coined and defined the term ‘unwarranted variation’

as “care that is not consistent with a patient’s preference or related to a patient’s underlying illness”. Data presented in many published articles have shown that considerable variation exists across the United Kingdom in clinical outcomes or rates of treatment that cannot be explained by disease prevalence, evidence-based care or patients’ illnesses and comorbidities. Using systems across all four nations of the United Kingdom permits a deeper understanding of this variation, permits benchmarking of key clinical outcomes and therefore drives an agenda to bridge the ever-widening health equity gap, elevating the least well performing towards the best.

Our NHS has good existing examples of operating systems, particularly for whole population-based services such as immunisation and screening. Breast cancer screening, for example, was based on work led by the University of Edinburgh and adopted using the experience of programmes in Nottingham and Guildford. Since that time twenty-five years ago, all screening programmes have been developed using systems and networks, and so too has the management of many cancers.

Although health is politically devolved, we believe that there are major benefits for all citizens if we could create systems that span the United Kingdom. Indeed the outcomes for asthma should be the same in Manchester, Motherwell, or even Melbourne and Manitoba. Variation in the provision of asthma services and non-compliance with the best available guidelines increases the potential for poor clinical outcomes and waste or resources. For example, it has been estimated that anywhere between 50 and 70% of asthma medications are wasted through lack of effective inhaler technique, putting more pressure on our emergency hospital services. The cost of asthma to the NHS is estimated to be between £1-1.5 billion, but does not exist as a budget that could be deployed as a national asthma service. The benefits of a systems approach are obvious to reduce this massive degree of unwarranted variation – simply by applying the knowledge that we have in a systematic fashion will save lives and money. 

We call on the leaders of our NHS to work together to explore the benefits of this integrating approach to improving the delivery of health. 

The roll-out of the vaccine demonstrated how a UK wide system and a local delivery plan can combine to provide high quality and equitable outcomes for communities across the country. Few people have had cause to complain either about the standard of service, or about some parts of the country receiving their vaccine later than others. 

In real-time, we have seen how it can work. A new integrated approach for many other diseases and symptoms should now be considered by the four nations of the UK to ensure greater quality of healthcare for all.

About the Authors

Sir John Armstrong Muir Gray CBE FRCPSGlas FCLIP is a British physician, who has held senior positions in screening, public health, information management. and value in healthcare. He is currently the Chief Knowledge Officer for EXi, a digital health therapeutic prescribing exercise to people with or at risk of up to 23 long-term health conditions

Professor David James Kerr CBE MA (Oxon) DSc MD FRCP FRCGP FMedSci is a British cancer researcher and clinician who chaired the working group which delivered the ‘Kerr Report’ a 20 year plan for Scotland’s NHS. He is Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University of Oxford.

A Consequential Budget: £8bn of Extra Choice

After 18 months where people have had their wages paid by the chancellor, nobody in Scotland needs any reminder of how important the budget is to our day to day lives. After an extraordinary year the collectively face extraordinary challenges. From the cost of living crisis, funding our public services to saving the planet, now is the time for government action. Many people will be asking how this budget is going to impact themselves, their family and their business.

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Finding Common Cause: Our Events

In February 2020, we at Our Scottish Future hit upon the great idea of holding a series of public meetings around Scotland to talk about the big questions facing the country’s future, where we would give local people a chance to meet face to face in the same room with one another.  

As Mike Tyson said, everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face – or hit by a global pandemic. 

But eighteen months on, we are delighted to say that we’re now planning to get things up and running again. 

Our inaugural event, entitled “Finding Common Cause” is taking place in Edinburgh on Saturday November 6th. You can get all the details and sign up here. 

Despite the intervention of the pandemic, our basic view of Scottish politics has not changed since we first came up with our plans. 

We believe that the debate on the union has too often been polarising. 

And while this is the preferred option of some, our polling shows that it ignores the views of “middle Scotland” – those thousands of us who would like to see a positive way forward for Scotland and the UK and aren’t wedded to some pre-determined constitutional formula.

Our events, starting in Edinburgh, are designed to provide a forum for those of us who want to act upon this idea, and themselves lead change, now. 

These meetings aren’t going to be for everybody. We haven’t bought any flags and we are fantastically uninterested in whatever the latest GERS numbers happen to be. Attendees can be assured we have no plans to explain what “sterlingisation” involves, not least because we’re not entirely sure ourselves.  

Instead we’d like to start our own conversation by talking about how to do politics in Scotland better.

Fundamentally, that’s by rejecting the notion that success is a defined by a win-at-all-costs battle to keep the Union together; by the politics of 50.1%.

Rather we want to champion the values of empathy, cooperation and solidarity and campaign for a more inclusive political culture that listens to, and learns from, the perspective that pro-independence supporters voters provide. 

We have some interesting and unusual guests coming along to provide their own perspective on all of this. 

And even if you’ve had no previous engagement with politics, that is no reason not to turn up.  

It’ll be a great opportunity to meet other interested and interesting people and to begin a more fruitful conversation about the way forward for Scotland. 

If you can’t join us in person, we will also be hosting a series of online events – please register your interest here. We look forward to seeing you in Edinburgh on the 6th, or at an event near you soon. 

Gordon Brown: “The Britain of Emma Raducanu Shows why Nationalists are Losing the Argument”

The public want to bang the door shut on a decade of division sewn by austerity, referendums and culture wars.

A new Britain is waiting to be born. It is economically progressive; egalitarian on race, religion, sex and gender;culturally centrist on law and order, defence and our history and traditions. It has a far stronger sense of place,  not only keen to celebrate our local as well as national identities but insistent that local communities be empowered with the control and the resources to make levelling-up a reality.

But this new post-austerity, post-Brexit, post-Covid Britain now needs to find its voice  and is desperately in need of modern  institutions,  reconstructed to reflect the values we hold dear.

It is impatient with culture wars.  The millions who condemned the booing of the English football team and protested the unjust vilification of Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho, were revealing overwhelming support for the more diverse and inclusive England that culture warriors hate. And when Gareth Southgate called for a less polarised country committed to eradicating racial and other inequalities, he was, as a new opinion survey published by Our Scottish Future confirms,  speaking for England. As many as 76 per cent agree that England‘s diversity as a country is important or very important to making them proud of being English. Eighty two per cent think that an equal voice for everyone irrespective of race, religion or gender is important or very important in making them proud to be English and 83 per cent think tolerance is important or very important in making them proud of being English.

It seems that, after 18 months of the pandemic, people want to bang the door shut on a decade of division sewn by austerity, referendums and culture wars. What is also   surfacing is a longing for belonging, not least for an England with a far stronger sense of place in which talking back control means making more decisions closer to home. For the first time since the 19th century, the distinctive voices of Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bristol, and Birmingham  and the regions are valued more than those of national politicians, and no one is now talking them down as “provincial”. This is wholly consistent with another strongly held sentiment: that Westminster and Whitehall should show more respect to people who, as another survey shows, feel  “neglected”, “forgotten”, “ignored” and patronised as second-class citizens. The polling is clear: people want to feel more invested in Britain but Britain must invest in them.

All this  has implications for the future of the United Kingdom. It challenges nationalists in Scotland and Wales who will now find it more difficult to claim that  Scots have little in common with the England of Southgate and Rashford. Indeed, it  contradicts their central argument for the break-up of Britain: that we cannot be  Scottish and British or Welsh and British at the same time. Most of us can feel comfortably at home with plural identities and found no difficulty waving the flags of St. Andrew, St. George and St David in June in support of Scottish, English and Welsh teams and then, come August, transitioning smoothly and naturally to supporting the Union Jack-waving GB Olympics and Paralympics teams Across England, Scotland and Wales, there are highly similar levels of support for saying equality, tolerance and diversity are important to making us proud of our country. There is the same level of support for the NHS, good jobs and climate change as the issues that matter. In their values and choice of priorities, Scotland and England and Wales are moving closer together, not further apart.  

For years we have been told that a more strongly-felt Englishness, Scottishness and Welshness would weaken Britishness and foreshadow the end of the Union. That is  wrong. Attempts by some Unionists to subsume Englishness, Scottishness  and Welshness in an all-consuming Britishness will not succeed. Diversity is not a threat, but a multinational state’s USP.  Unity does not require uniformity and solidarity does not demand the elimination of regional and national differences. To be British does not mean having one identity. Citizens can be comfortably Muslim, English and British. Only a minority now believe that the main characteristic of being British is that you were born in Britain. It is possible to be born in Canada of Romanian and Chinese  parents and be, like Emma Raducanu, a new British sporting icon. Within these islands, to rephrase Tennyson, all that we have met are a part of each of us.

That is why Boris Johnson’s “muscular unionism” simply plays into the hands of Nicola Sturgeon and her plans to provoke a constitutional crisis next year.  Describing the UK as “one nation”, he is abandoning the bigger idea – and better reality – that we are  a “family of nations”. He wants to badge new Scottish roads and bridges as British, as if hoisting more Union Jacks will make people decide they are only British and not also Scottish or Welsh. Once the champion of more powers for London, he now sees devolution outside London as “a disaster” and – ironically for an avowedly small-state Conservative Party – its Internal Market Act and Shared Prosperity Fund override devolution in favour of bolstering a centralised unitary state run out of London SW1. 

At a time when every country’s independence is now constrained by their interdependence, muscular unionism harks back to an unrealistic view of an  indivisible, unlimited sovereignty accountable to no-one but itself. It is a mirror image of the Scottish nationalist playbook, for they also have a one-dimensional and absolutist us-versus-them view of the world. You have to make a choice: Scottish or British – you cannot be both.

The mistake all narrow nationalists make is assuming the very same people who, like me, want more control of decisions closer to home have also decided they do not want to co-operate with their closest neighbours. But take the NHS: it is administered separately across four nations; but when asked what is “national” about the NHS, the designation most choose is “British”. Indeed, by five to one, Scots agree that vaccination shows the benefits of UK-wide cooperation.

Over 75 per cent want more cooperation, not less, and this sentiment appears rooted in a  basic solidarity and willingness to share. When an Englishman volunteers an organ donation – heart, liver or lung – he does not stipulate that his donation is to save English lives only. When a Welsh or Scottish woman gives blood she doesn’t demand an assurance it must not go to an English patient, but instead, to whoever is most in need, wherever in the UK. And we do feel the pain of others: when the people of  Manchester were hit by a terrorist attack and Plymouth by a mass shooting, the whole of the UK grieved together.  

Looking ahead, when we now have to address not just pandemics but the other challenges of the 2020s – climate change, financial instability and gross inequalities – are nationalists not now, for the first time in years, on the defensive? Is it not time to ask them why they don’t want to cooperate with neighbours who share their values, and ask who benefits when cooperation fails?

I believe that, as Covid and culture wars recede, the idea of a new Britain has more resonance and credibility than the talk of a new Britain in 1997. It will be a Britain whose unity evolves out of our diversity and is built on a shared belief in equal rights guaranteed to all, with personal responsibility the duty of all. The next step, upon which the Starmer constitutional review I chair is inviting evidence, is to reconstruct our institutions to reflect that better Britain and, not least in the light of our recent  Afghanistan nightmare, re-imagine our country as a force for good. The message is clear: seize the moment to build a new Britain – or risk losing it altogether.

This article originally appeared in The New Statesman under the title “The Britain of Emma Raducanu shows why nationalists are losing the argument”.

 

Poll Shows UK-Wide Shared Priorities and Values

Scotland, England, and Wales “Moving Closer Together not Further Apart”, says Brown
New Poll Shows That a “New Britain is Waiting to be Born” Based on Shared Priorities and Values
Governments of the UK Must Cooperate on NHS and Jobs Recovery

A new poll released by Our Scottish Future today reveals that the nations of the UK are united on the key priorities they want government to pursue after the pandemic, and by the values that underpin their sense of national pride.  

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the founder of the Our Scottish Future campaign, says today that the survey shows Britain is “moving closer together, not further apart”.

Writing in tomorrow’s New Statesman magazine, he says that a “new Britain is waiting to be born” based on the shared values and priorities that now exist across the whole UK as the country emerges from the division of Brexit and the trauma of the pandemic. 

He adds: “It is economically progressive; egalitarian on race, religion, sex and gender; culturally centrist on law and order, defence and our history and traditions and with a far stronger sense of place, not only keen to celebrate our local as well as national identities but insistent that local communities be empowered with the control and the resources to make levelling up a reality.” 

“But this new post-austerity, post-Brexit, post-Covid Britain now needs to find its voice and is desperately in need of modern institutions that reflect our values.” 

Our Scottish Future polled people across Scotland, England and Wales to ask them about their own values and their priorities for the coming years ahead. 

In Scotland, England and Wales, people are united in their belief that equality (78%, 76%, 78%), tolerance (83%, 83%, 83%), liberty (86%, 87%,83%), and diversity (82%, 82%, 80%) are important to making them proud of their nation. 

The poll also showed that people are across the three nations are largely agreed on controversial social questions around limits on immigration, the nature of British history, and the balance between equality and opportunity in society.

On priorities, people in all three nations said that making the NHS the best healthcare system in the world needed to be the clear top focus for government. 

Similarly, people across all the countries of the UK prioritised a dignified retirement for old people, fighting climate change, and making sure every child has the best education as other top priorities. 

Writing in this week’s New Statesman magazine, Mr Brown cites England football manager Gareth Southgate’s “Letter to England” earlier this summer, which highlighted the values of tolerance and equality. 

Mr Brown says the poll demonstrates that he was indeed speaking for the majority of people in England.

“As many as 76 % agree that England‘s diversity as a country is important or very important to making them proud of being English. 82% think that an equal voice for everyone irrespective of race, religion or gender is important or very important in making them proud to be English and 83% think tolerance is important or very important in making them proud of being English.”

This, he argues, has profound consequences for the debate on Scottish and Welsh independence. 

He argues: “Looking ahead, when we now have to address not just pandemics but the other challenges of the 2020s – climate change, financial instability and gross inequalities – are nationalists not now, for the first time in years, on the defensive? Is it not time to ask them why they don’t want to cooperate with neighbours who share their values and ask who benefits when cooperation fails?”  

Mr Brown is heading up a review of the Constitution for the Labour Party which is expected to recommend reforms to the UK state to encourage more cooperation.

He concludes: “I believe that as Covid and culture wars recede the idea of new Britain has more resonance and credibility than the talk of a new Britain in 1997. It will be a Britain whose unity evolves out of our diversity and is built on a shared belief in equal rights guaranteed to all with personal responsibility the duty of all. The next step, upon which the Starmer Constitutional Review I chair is inviting evidence, is to reconstruct our institutions to reflect that better Britain and, not least in the light of our recent Afghanistan nightmare, re-imagine our country as a force for good. The message is clear: seize the moment to build a new Britain – or risk losing it altogether.” 

Our Scottish Future has been set up to campaign for a more cooperative UK and is backing reforms of the Union to enable that to happen.   

In recent weeks, it has published papers on both the health recovery and the jobs recovery, urging the UK and Scottish Governments to work together on the post-pandemic response. 

Please see the details of our polling here. 

Data tables for the polls are here:

England

Scotland

Wales

UK-Scottish Government Jobs Support Needed for 70,000 at Risk Young Scots​

The UK and Scottish Governments must work together to prevent as many as 70,000 young Scots falling into unemployment, a new report by Our Scottish Future declares today.  

Published a year on from the Scottish Government’s Young Persons Jobs Guarantee, the paper finds that ambitious plans by both governments to support 18-24 year olds into work are yet to have a major impact on the ground.

On the UK Government’s Kickstart programme – which was designed to create 250,000 paid work placements for young people across the UK – the paper finds that only 4,400 job starts have so far been created across Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s own Scottish Youth Guarantee – which was designed to ensure every 16-24 year-old was in work, education, training or volunteer work over the next two years – is pledging to create 24,000 ‘new and enhanced’ jobs and opportunities for young people but, as of June, had signed up only 45 employers to partner the scheme.

It welcomes the funding and action by both Governments but says poor implementation and a lack of coordination between the two is damaging their chances of success. 

Despite high numbers of vacancies, it is feared that young people are not getting into work because they lack the qualifications or skills to pick up available opportunities. 

The paper says the official figure of 41,000 unemployed under 25s in Scotland “significantly underplays the true scale of Scotland’s youth unemployment crisis” and warns the number will increase once furlough ends.

It argues: “In reality, we face perhaps a minimum of 50,000 unemployed young people across Scotland, with a further 10,000 economically inactive searching for work – bringing the total NEET (not in education, employment or training) to 60,000, with the potential to rise over 70,000 in the coming months.”   

It recommends that:   

  • Scottish Government should examine the feasibility of a Scottish Public Sector Guarantee for every under 25 year old without a job   
  • UK Government departments, Scottish Government and local authorities convene a joint taskforce to set out a shared plan of action   
  • Scottish Government and local authorities are given Kickstart funds directly to aid implementation   
  • Kickstart is extended to September 2022   
  • SMEs are given more incentives to hire young people on apprenticeships   
  • A long term overhaul of Scottish youth opportunities   

The paper is the first publication of the newly formed Our Scottish Future Economy Commission, chaired by Glasgow University’s Professor Ronnie MacDonald.   

Writing in the foreword to the paper, Professor MacDonald says: “As our report shows, various high profile Government policy initiatives – from Holyrood’s Youth Jobs Guarantee, to Westminster’s Kickstart programme – are not yet having the impact that was initially hoped for, nor acting with the urgency the crisis requires.”   

“The Governments in London and Edinburgh must now come together to plan an integrated approach so that young people are not left behind once again.”    

“Our report sets out recommendations on how to do so – centred around a genuine Youth Jobs Guarantee which does what it says: guarantees that every young person who wants to work gets to work this autumn. We also call for reform of longer-term employment support.” 

Existing data has already shown that young Scots are nearly twice as likely to have been furloughed over the last 15 months and are two and a half times as likely to work in sectors which have been hit hardest by the pandemic, such as hospitality and retail.

Today’s paper concludes:  “This political will is to be welcomed, as are the significant resources that have been allocated. However, the roll-out of job support programmes has not made sufficient inroads to tackle the scale of the crisis we face in Scotland. It is due to poorly designed policies, a lack of consultation with business and enterprise, administrative bureaucracy driving delays, and – above all – the absence of genuine coordination between UK and Scottish government.”

Our Scottish Future is a campaign set up to promote greater cooperation across the United Kingdom. It has set up four Commissions on the economy, the environment, poverty and healthcare to highlight the need for greater cooperation and to make recommendations on how to deliver a more coordinated approach.   

1. Figures on the UK Government’s KickStart programme are here: 

Written questions and answers – Written questions, answers and statements – UK Parliament 

2. This week’s Programme for Government committed to “continue to invest” in the Young Person’s Guarantee and aims to provide 24,000 “new and enhanced jobs, skills and training opportunities.” 

In response to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, the Scottish Government has stated that “As of 1 June, there were 45 employers signed up to the Young Person’s Guarantee and we are continuing to engage with employers to encourage further sign up.”