Beware the SNP’s false promise of social democracy, argues Gordon Brown
Progressives looking to an independent Scotland as the standard-bearer in the global fight against inequality will be sorely disappointed upon a closer inspection of the facts.
One of the propaganda devices of the Scottish National party has been to persuade left-of-centre opinion that breaking free from London rule would create a ‘northern light’ for social justice – a Scotland that is more just, more humane and more socially democratic. However, a Scotland which followed the policies outlined in the SNP’s white paper for independence and ended the system of pooling and sharing resources across the United Kingdom would quickly find that income and wealth would be more unequally distributed than in the country they abandoned.
It may seem paradoxical but the Scottish people’s much-vaunted egalitarian instincts are not reflected in the SNP’s prospectus for a separate state. Myth or reality, Scotland has always prided itself on both its democratic intellect – equalising opportunities in education – and its role as a pioneer of a civic society built on the idea that if the strong help the weak, we all become stronger. And although recent surveys have found Scottish and English opinion similar in their support for the NHS and for help for the unemployed – the difference lying only in a greater Scottish dislike of privatisation and private education – the idea of a socially concerned Scotland is a powerful one that influences how we act.
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