Better Together for CEMVO

Here is the text of the speech  would have delivered for Better Together at the CEMVO debate in Inverness last night, if the organisers had got their act together....


I'd like to start by talking about what this debate is about 

Its not about whether Scotland could be independent.  Of course it could

Its not about kicking the coalition at the next election.

Its not even really about the pound and pensions and the EU, serious though those issues are

Its whether Scotland will be a better, fairer place to live and work as an independent country or with its own parliament as part of the UK

Its about what kind of country our kids and the generations after them will grow up in.

We only get one chance to get it right

I’m a member of the Labour Party. 

I’m a socialist

I believe in a fair society, shared opportunity and shared rewards

I believe we can achieve a fair, just economy and society by working together not by splitting apart

I want to see a Living wage, more houses built,

Decent public service delivered by well-funded councils

No Trident 

How much more powerful will that ambition be if we can achieve it across the whole UK, for people in Liverpool and Manchester and Leicester and not just in Scotland.

When Labour proposed the National Minimum Wage it wasn’t just a Minimum Wage for Scotland.

We knew as a movement that the best way of securing the big changes in the lives of working people was to campaign and secure change right across the UK.

We knew that the pooling and sharing of resources from all parts of the UK for the benefit of everyone in the UK was the best way of achieving it.

You don’t need told about the benefits of solidarity with other workers. You live solidarity every day.   

The same principle applies. The BME community in Scotland recognises that by working with BME communities across the UK the voice was stronger and louder and meant collective action across the UK for the benefit of BME communities across the UK.

The big struggles, big fights but the big wins you have achieved have all been as a result of your coming together and campaigning for change

The Race Relations Act

The Equal pay legislation

The Equality Act

Disability discrimination

There are still major fights to be won in tackling rising Islamophobia, racism, and sectarianism, and the greatest chance of success is by coming together and campaigning for change across the UK.

Of course an independent Scotland will bring new opportunities

But it also brings risks.  Its not “scaremongering” to raise them

What’s happening under the Coalition is bad enough...

But there is NO guarantee an independent Scotland can do better.   

IF the UK government agrees to everything we want in the negotiations

IF we are able to keep the pound

IF the financial markets are kind to us....

IF we can join the EU as a new member on the same terms as now

IF the oil keeps running.....

We need to be sure the situations for jobs, pensions, public services will be better not worse.

The truth is that Scotland is subject to the same 21st century pressures as the rest of the world.

Independence will not create a socialist utopia overnight.

New oil revenues won’t wipe out the share of the UK deficit we’ll inherit.

Scotland will still have to compete in the same global markets, defend itself from financial predators and find a way to balance income and spending in a fragile economic recovery.

Scotland is a wealthy country if you measure it by GDP per head; but most of that wealth is earned by foreign companies. 

It’s not just sitting there for an independent Scottish Government to spend how it wants.

We already get more than our share of UK public spending per head.

We also get Zero Hour Contracts

Ever-rising Energy Prices

Welfare Cuts

Part-time jobs

Minimum Wage

Why will these things suddenly be different in an independent Scotland?   The same economic rules will still apply…..

60% of our trade is with RUK; competing will mean a race to the bottom unless we change these things right across the UK.

So let’s work together to get the UK we want.

A Living wage economy

An industrial strategy that works for the whole country and not just the South East

Decent Pensions funded by 60m people not 6m

Equality

There is so much to change but we can achieve more for more people if we work together instead of apart.

I get the democratic argument

We don’t always get the government we want

Margaret Thatcher was elected the first year I had a vote. 

What she did to our country, not just to Scotland but right across the UK shaped my politics

But this is not about an alternative to another tory government.  It’s about what kind of country our kids will grow up in.

its not about  ‘sticking it’ to David Cameron, who will be long gone before the full consequences of independence are felt. 

We need to think about what we might be doing to the prospects of future generations. 

Governments can and will be changed

There is no going back if we get it wrong as an independent country. 

I have a better vision for Scotland

A Scotland with more powers over tax and benefits

A Scotland with No Bedroom Tax

A Scotland that insists on people in work earning a Living Wage

A Scotland that is determined young people should always be able to find work.

A Scotland that gets the benefits of being together when it comes to the pound and business but can decide for itself how it spends its national income.

A Scotland where we can all grow, prosper and succeed.

Together, I believe we can build a better Scotland and a better UK.

Together we can.

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Nairn IndyRef Debate

Text of my speech at the Gurn's debate in Nairn last night. On a panel with John Finnie MSP, Mary Scanlon MSP and Jean Urquhart MSP.   Not exactly as delivered as we all had to adapt to a different format on the night.  Very good debate and discussion.  Most of us agree about what we want to achieve for Scotland, we just differ about how....


There are just over 3 months to the most important decision we will ever make in this country.

So it’s good to have this debate tonight

Let me start by saying I agree with most of the things John & Jean want to achieve

I just don’t agree that independence is the best way to achieve it

Of course Scotland can “make it” as an independent country.

But what kind of country?

A land of milk and honey, a northern Celtic Tiger………

Or a small country, dependant on volatile oil revenues and the whims of a predatory financial system …..

… ask the Irish and the Icelanders how that feels …..

 I don’t want that to happen to my country

 So let me make the case for why I think we are Better Together.

 Of course it difficult to make a positive case for a negative word

 But put simply, I believe we can achieve more for Scotland as part of the UK.

 Together is better for the economy

Together is better for business and jobs

Together is better for Pensions

 Staying together means more powers for the Scottish Parliament

 Best of both worlds with least risk

 The Yes campaign keeps insisting that Better Together needs to make its case for staying as part of the UK.

As if that’s the option that needs justified…...

As if everything the YES campaign says should just be accepted at face value

The Yes campaign needs to stop making promises it knows it can’t keep.

It needs to be more honest about the risks.

The risks to our economy and the risk to jobs and livelihoods.

 It needs to put some costs on its promises.

 It’s all very well saying the UK Treasury numbers about the cost of setting up an independent government are wrong.

 But the SNP haven’t given us their numbers.


Why won’t they? And if they don’t have them what sort of preparation for independence is that?


John Swinney must know.... That’s why he wouldn’t answer on that radio interview last week. 


Alex Salmond of course doesn’t suffer from such caution.


He just made a number up…...


It’s up to the Yes campaign to deal with these issues and not just label those raising them as members of Project Fear.


Being part of the UK is good for Scotland’s small businesses. Two thirds of our trade is with rest of the UK.

Our single market means businesses can buy and sell throughout the whole of the UK without any restrictions.


Our engineering, oil, aerospace and financial services sectors all rely on supply chains integrated across the UK.


I run a small business with customers right across the UK.


Business in hard enough in a competitive world without having to trade across a border, however informal it might be.


Where is the sense in putting up barriers between Scottish businesses and their customers and suppliers elsewhere in the UK?


Today our small businesses, which are the bedrock of the Scottish economy, benefit from the strength, security and stability of the UK Pound. Only independence would put this at risk

It’s up to the Yes campaign to deal with these issues and not just label those raising them as members of Project Fear.

 I get the democratic argument.

I don’t want another Tory/Coalition government.

I get the case for devolving power to where it can make a difference.

I’d like to see local authorities given back some of the powers the SNP have taken away.

 I get the no nuclear weapons on our soil argument.

 We need nuclear weapons out of the whole country, not just moved down the coast to Barrow.

I’ll always campaign for those changes at Holyrood and across the UK.


What I don’t get is policies which play fast and loose with economic certainty.

 Promises on pensions and childcare which don’t stand up if the oil revenues fall.

 Promises on corporation tax which can’t work in a currency union

Assertions on EU membership which are in truth a leap into the unknown and are scaring the life out of business.

Wishful thinking on the pound, with no plan B

 An approach that will cost Scotland dearly when the financial markets put up interest rates.

 An approach that’s already causing business to pause on investment (B&Q) and put in place their own Plan Bs (Standard Life)

 That’s not scaremongering – that’s economic reality!

I have a better vision for Scotland

A Scotland with a with more powers over tax and benefits

 A Scotland with No Bedroom Tax

A Scotland that insists on people in work earning a Living Wage

A Scotland that is determined young people should always be able to find work.

 A Scotland that gets the benefits of being together when it comes to the pound and business but can decide for itself how it spends its national income. 

A Scotland where we can all grow, prosper and succeed.

Together, I believe we can build a better Scotland and a better UK.

Together we can.

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Letter to Courier about the A9

Text below of my letter published in the Inverness Courier and Strathspey Herald last week

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Dear Sirs

The Highland press has seen much coverage in the last few weeks of the argument between Danny Alexander MP and the SNP over dualling the A9 and speed cameras.

I think its time we all stopped playing politics with the A9.

It’s a vital connector for the Highland economy.  But it also needs to be safe to drive on, for locals, for visitors and regular commuters between Inverness, Edinburgh & Glasgow.

I’m one of those commuters so I know first-hand how frustrating and dangerous a road it can be. 

You only need to look at the A90 that serves Aberdeen to see the benefits dualling the A9 will bring.  We need to deliver a dualled A9, as quickly as possible, without politics getting in the way of finding the money. 

I’m also a regular train user, just as frustrated by long journey times, “passing stops” and inconvenient timetables. The rail link south also needs investment to increase capacity and shorten journey times.  Would the option of more rail freight take some big lorries off the A9?

Meanwhile, inter-city and local buses are the forgotten services in all of this; expensive and not meeting the needs of rural and town communities alike.

A fresh approach is needed – Westminster, Holyrood and The Highland Council working together – to deliver an integrated transport system that really works for the Highlands.  An approach that combines big capital investments in the A9 and the rail links to Inverness, alongside imaginative ideas to improve local bus services.

Less playing politics, more getting it done.

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Mike Robb to tackle 'Tory cheerleader' Danny Alexander

MP Danny Alexander has been “a cheerleader for Tory policies” which have damaged the Highlands, says the man selected to oppose him in next year's General Election.

Highland businessman Mike Robb has been selected as the Scottish Labour Party candidate for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.  Mr Robb finished runner-up to Mr. Alexander at the 2010 election.

Mr Robb, whose wife Gwen is an NHS nurse, runs his own UK-wide IT consultancy with an office in Inverness. He has a degree in physics from Edinburgh University and he and Gwen, who live in Muir of Ord, have two adult sons.

After being unanimously selected again as candidate at a Labour Party meeting in Inverness, Mr Robb said:  "Being in second place last time puts us in the driving seat as the leading challenger to replace Danny Alexander, who has led the charge in driving up the cost of living, hitting families with a VAT hike and the Bedroom Tax while doing nothing about rocketing fuel and energy bills.

"If you feel let down by Mr Alexander, then I'm the alternative if you want him out of office.

"I've spoken to many people who voted for him -- but didn't realise he would be such a cheerleader for Tory policies that have been so damaging for young people, ordinary pensioners and the poorest in our community."

“We’ll be campaigning hard over the next 12 months to beat the LibDems, elect a Labour MP and give the Highlands its very own Portillo Moment.”

Mr Robb said that providing jobs for young people was his number one priority.  "It's tragic that so many youngsters are leaving school or college with no real employment prospects", he stressed.

"We also need a welfare system that's there when required -- helping people to make their lives work instead of stigmatising them.  Scrapping the Bedroom Tax will be a good start"

David Stewart, local Labour MP from 1997 to 2005, said he was delighted that Mike Robb has agreed to stand again. "He has enthused our membership as the fight begins to give the area a Labour voice again."

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Latest Scottish Tax & Spend Numbers show why we are Better Together

The article below by my former Physics IV colleague Ian Gray deserves a read.  In simple language it demolishes the SNP case for a financialy secure indepndant Scotland.

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It was obvious the SNP knew the latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures were bad news for them when the First Minister briefed journalists instead of John Swinney whose job it usually is.

 

Of course they were right, for the sums just don’t support their rhetoric on Scotland’s financial position and their promise of economic prosperity under independence. 

 

In their White Paper, the SNP’s vision for future income is largely dependent on revenue from oil which is a volatile and finite resource. What these new GERS numbers show is that last year, if you divvy up oil on a geographic basis, Scotland’s oil revenues dropped by 44% as oil gets harder to extract from the North Sea and therefore less profitable. 

 

This is a drop in one year of £4.4billion, equal to the budget for all of Scotland’s schools combined. If we were an independent nation right now then that hole in the Scottish economy would have to be filled by a Scottish Chancellor either by huge cuts in public services, or massive tax rises. There is certainly no spare oil money for any oil fund to be set up. 

 

Over the last year the SNP have based much of their economics of independence on the assertion that Scotland’s deficit is lower than the UK’s. The latest figures show that while they’ve been arguing for separation based on this claim, the reality is that Scotland’s deficit (8.3%) is actually greater than the rest of the UK’s (7.3%). This blows their economic case for separation out of the water.  It leaves the White Paper, already shown to be wrong on currency and Europe, without a shred of credibility.

 

The GERS numbers are complex and the SNP have complicated them further in their attempt to conceal the bad news and bamboozle us with varied interpretations of the figures. However, the bottom line is that the only way in which Scotland can withstand such volatile shifts in oil revenues is through the stability and security of being part of the larger UK economy. 

 

There is no doubt that the SNP’s fiscal case for separation has been dealt a fatal blow and they need to tell the people of Scotland how public services and pensions will be paid for if independence goes ahead.

 

Yours,

 

Iain Gray

Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance

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Speech to Labour Party Special Conference 2014

Comrades
My CLP met jointly with Inverness and Nairn CLP in  December to discuss and agree our response to the Collins Report.
We agree with much of the principle and proposals in the Report.
There is a real need for our party processes and structures to be modernised in order to tackle the widespread public disengagement with party politics.
We are in favour of developing new models of membership and affiliation for individuals wishing to play a role in the party.
But we also believe that the principle of collective affiliation to the Labour Party - by Trade Unions and Socialist Societies - is a bedrock of our movement which needs to be retained and developed.
We need to build on collective affiliation to develop better and modern ways to encouarge individual participation in labour party democracy by both trade union members and labour supporters in our communities.
So we support the proposals for affiliated memberships and One Member One Vote in the Collins Report.
We support the NEC resolution.

Comrades, I represent a Highland CLP.

Maybe I should be apologising at this point about Danny Alexander.

Well I can tell tell you we are working on it.  

Our Dump Danny Campaign is up, running and gaining wide support.

You can expect a Highland Portillo moment in 2015.

In September this year we will have the most important vote in Scotland in generations.

A referendum where the YES campaign to split up the UK is led by the SNP and Alex Salmond.

A leader whose response to facts, the polls, to business, the Bank of England, the EU commissioners....

...., to Ed Balls and his future opposition Treasury colleagues......

......  is to say "I'm right, you're wrong".

Not so much "One Member One Vote" as "One Man, My Vote, My Way"!

That's why were better together in Scotland.

That's why were better together in the UK with a One Nation Labour Party.

Comrades, support the Resolution.

Thank you.

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The Positive Case for Pensions

Pension provision has become one of the key economic battlegrounds for the Independence debate.  When it comes to economic security in retirement, there is strong and positive case for why we are better to stay together as part of a joined up UK.

The first thing to say is that whilst our current pension system is not perfect, many of the benefits of the UK pension system are universally acknowledged.  There are many changes I would like to see to our benefits and pension systems, but breaking away from the financial security of the current UK state pension scheme is not one of them.

In our UK welfare system, Scots contribute resources to the common pool, and take benefits from it. Perhaps the most significant of these is the old-age pension, introduced first by a Welsh Liberal 100 years ago, but integrated into a wider system of national insurance and social security by an English Labour minister. When you are out of work in Glasgow your benefits are paid by the taxes of someone in work in Glamorgan. When you retire in Lanark your pension is paid by the taxes of a young person in Liverpool starting out in working life.

The UK has learned the hard way how to build a sustainable pension system.  The system that is now being built here offers a better combination of fairness, sustainability and predictability than most other countries in both the developed and emerging worlds.

It is not a system that is going to make anyone rich, but it will deliver, will stand the test of time and provides incentives and confidence for people to plan for their own retirement. It is a pension system that doesn’t over-promise and it is realistic about what can be delivered.  It provides people with the reassurance that, when it is time for them to retire, the benefits they thought would be there are actually there.

Looking to the future more people are living for longer.  The ratio of people receiving their pension compared to the percentage of people in work is rising. This will put pressure on public finances across the UK.  However the position in Scotland is worse with the proportion of people over pension age in Scotland projected to be higher than in the rest of the UK.  That will increase the pension bill.  

Carrying this cost is a bigger problem for Scotland than for the rest of the UK because of the age structure of our population. Within the union, however, that risk is pooled with the whole country – 60m people across a broad range of employment, age and earning power - and will not have to be borne purely out of Scottish resources. That’s a positive benefit of the union for Scotland.

The SNP Government, in its White Paper on Scotland future has proposed that an independent Scotland would have a more generous state pension system than is currently provided across the UK.  The headlines are a small increase in the state pension to £160 per week and the introduction of a “triple lock” to ensure the state pension always rose by more than average incomes, prices or inflation whichever is the higher.  Both good policies.  However, the White Paper (see Chapter 4, pages 138 – 150) whilst describing in detail the changes to the pension system an SNP administration would make, does not provide any detailed costings of these changes nor any analysis of the fiscal impact of the ageing population in Scotland in future years.  Nor does it make clear whether it will set up its own state pension fund and how it will be funded if it does.  Indeed the language talks about Scotland “administering” pensions on behalf of Scottish pensioners.  Does this mean it intends to reach an agreement with rUK to remain part of the UK fund, whilst deciding on its own rules for how it spends its share of the state pension “pot”. 

A recent Institute of Fiscal Studies Report has looked at the detail.  It concludes: “It seems likely that this slightly more generous system could not be sustained in the long term without discretionary tax rises or further cuts to spending on public services.”

The other key argument for remaining part of the UK is the potential risk to occupational and private pensions, which more and more working people rely on to top up the basic state provision.  EU rules on pension schemes operating in more than one country (“cross-border schemes”) are strict; they have to be fully funded and comply with much stricter actuarial standards than apply to single state schemes.  There is a real risk that Scottish pension contributions for occupational schemes may have to rise, benefits fall, separate schemes be set up just for Scottish employees, or even close.   The SNP recognise this in their White Paper (p148) and talk of negotiating transitional arrangements.  This seems to me, however, to be a risk that is just not worth taking.  Why risk changes to occupational pension arrangement that demonstrably work now?

The UK pension system is not perfect of course, nor is the system in any nation. But the UK system is built, it is sustainable and it has a broad spread of population to support it; a system built through the generations and there for the generations to come. That's something worth keeping.

The only way for Scotland to remain a partner in the UK pensions system is for Scotland to remain a partner in the UK, pooling and sharing our resources. For what is the UK national pension system but a form of collective insurance against poverty & indignity in old age where risk and reward is shared across classes, across regions, across nations, and across generations young and old.

It does makes sense to look at devolving some aspects of the benefits system to Holyrood e.g. housing benefit so that the detail of welfare policies could be better adapted to the different priorities and demographics in Scotland.  But when it comes to Pensions, I believe we really are better together.

It can take 50 years to prove that a pensions system works and by then it is too late to do anything about it if it doesn’t. In that respect, we are being asked by the Yes Campaign to make a calculated gamble.  That’s not a risk I think is worth taking.

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