On the Trident Debate

Yesterday I listened proudly to the Labour MPs stating their opposition to Trident renewal.  They may still be in a minority but their voice is getting louder as the questions about Trident pile up...

But why stay with Labour if so many Labour MPs still vote for Trident I hear?

First because we are a UK party and its only a UK government that can rid us of nuclear weapons.  It's winning the arguments and minds in  the Party and the PLP  that will change things.  More MPs are starting to question it on many different grounds. Just listen to Emily Thornton, the Shadow Defence Secretary.  And there is growing support in the party membership to stop the programme.

Second, the argument to vote SNP so an independent Scotland will rid Scotland of Trident is no argument for me.  I object to the principle of just moving these weapons of mass destruction over a border so they become someone else's problem.  And besides, a nuclear strike on Barrow will destroy central Scotland just as surely as if they were still at Faslane.

Who knows what complexion of UK government would be in charge them - all we do know is Scotland would have little influence.

And as we are learning from Brexit, post separation negotiations have a habit of delivering unexpected consequences.  Who'd bet against a UK base on the Clyde still being there in 50 years time with a long term UK lease Hong Kong style agreed as part of an economic setttlement  - only we would have no control at all over it...

Ridding this country of nuclear weapons needs a united Labour Party and a united country.  I'll keep campaigning for both...

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Brexit, Corbyn and where next for Labour

I was stunned by last Thursday's EU referendum result.  And not in a good way.  Maybe spending most of the last few months working between Scotland and London gave me a biased view but I really did not sense the strength of leave outside of that particular bubble.

As events unfolded over Friday and the weekend I decided to take some time to work out what was happening and what I felt a Labour response should be.  Cameron resigning, Boris and Farage posturing and the realisation that the Brexiteers didn't have a Plan A never mind a Plan B.  Business colleagues seriously worried about where this would take us and the problems ahead for growth, investment and employment. 

Mixed with this though was a growing anger at the leadership of the Labour Party.  My party.  I've been hugely frustrated by the lack of a strong Labour message on the EU.  I didn’t really expect this to come from Jeremy Corbyn - I know his views on Europe: I don’t agree with them - but I expected leading shadow cabinet figures as well as media friendly comrades like Umuna, Cooper and Flint to come out fighting.  But they all just seemed to sit on their hands.  Maybe now we know why.

Whether a powerful and coordinated Labour campaign would have made a difference we shall never know.  We didn’t call this referendum.  It was never about what's best for the UK and Scotland.  It was an electoral device to keep Cameron in control of his party. A device that has badly backfired and shame on the Tories for landing us with this split society and looming economic maelstrom.  Its wasn't about our leadership - though its becoming so.

Which brings me to Jeremy Corbyn, his leadership of my party and the calculated campaign by Labour MPs to remove him.

After much thought last year, I voted for Corbyn.  Partly out of despair at what the others stood for.  Mainly because I believed in his view of a different kind of politics.  I saw the opportunity to bring the Labour Party back to its members and to develop a left of centre policy platform that resonated with ordinary people across the whole of the UK.  Bringing people back to Labour.

It hasn't happened. There has been no leadership, no plan, no starting to build a left of centre government in waiting.  I don’t for a minute underestimate the role of the media and the usual Blairite/Progress suspects in frustrating this. But Corbyn for me has demonstrated some basic failures of leadership. Recognise your own strengths and weaknesses, then put people on your team who fill the gaps.  Set a vision and make sure your team talk to it at every opportunity.  Never easy in politics, but Corbyn seems to have surrounded himself with an inward looking team of people, with their own agendas and limited political and media experience.  They are just not competent.

But whilst my jury was still out, I am just so frustrated at the behaviour of so many in the Parliamentary Labour Party.  Just when we had the opportunity to build political momentum on the back of Brexit and the personalised faction fighting in the Tory Party. The chance to highlight the looming economic disaster Boris will land us in ("the BREXIT Boris left us").  But no, it’s just  right time for a Labour leadership challenge.  On Sunday evening I could have cried out loud as news bulletin after news bulletin was all about Labour. 

I know all about factional coups in the Labour Party.  But we usually do it behind closed doors.  This highly organised and public leader-slaying is not the Labour Party I want to see. 

But now the lines are drawn.  A leader supported by the membership power of a few hundred thousand vs elected MPs speaking for millions.  Many of the same MPs mind you - not all - who supported policies that lost us the last two elections.  

But we are where we are.

Corbyn cannot function as a leader of the opposition whilst in a state of war with the majority of the PLP.  He is not going to back down and neither are they.

So we need a leadership election.  Our leader at Westminster has to command the support of both members and the PLP.

I won’t be voting for Jeremy Corbyn if he stands again.  But, please, no re-modelled Blairite redux candidate either.

We need a left leaning leader who can work with the support of our membership and trade unions, who can build alliances in the centre but kick ass with the Blairite/Progress rump in the PLP.  Someone who ordinary people in the midlands, north, south-west, Wales and Scotland can relate to, but who isnt seen as part of "the elite".    A party leader who can set a political agenda that members, unions and the PLP can believe in.  Someone with the personal style, team-building skills and political self-awareness to lead, but with the integrity and honesty of Corbyn.

Right now, I have no idea who that is. 

We shall see over the next few days, I expect.

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Respectful Debate with Yes Scotland

Debated #indyref with Blair Jenkins from YES at Inverness Town House tonight.  Here is the full text of my opening speech.

What is this debate 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.

And 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 introduced 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.

Pooling and sharing resources from all parts of the UK for the benefit of everyone in the UK.

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.  I won’t forget that.

Just like I won’t forget the SNP MPs who trooped through the lobbies in Westminster to bring down a Labour government and user in 18 years of Tory rule.

The referendum 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. 

It about what we might do 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. 

This vote must be more than just idealism.  

It will have a direct impact on people’s lives and their jobs.

Of course an independent Scotland could succeed

It could bring new opportunities

But it also brings risks. 

Its not “scaremongering” to raise them. 

I don’t get wishful thinking 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 a leap into the unknown and which are scaring the life out of business……. 

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

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 situation for jobs, pensions, public services will be better not worse.

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

Independence will not create a socialist utopia overnight.

It took an independent Norway 90 years to build a decent economy

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.

But we also get Zero Hour Contracts

Ever-rising Energy Prices

Welfare Cuts

Low pay jobs that trap working people in poverty.

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

Local authorities funded properly to deliver decent services

A Scottish Parliament with real powers over tax, spending and benefits

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

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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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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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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