Closing the Opportunity Gap

Wednesday, 19th January 2005

It has been a somewhat strange start to the parliamentary year.

We all returned from our holiday chastened by the terrible tsunami.

Then we paused.

Would the New Year herald the warm-up period for that big clash of ideas: the competing visions for Scotland’s future being fiercely debated here and at Westminster, those crucibles of Scottish democracy?

It was not quite like that.

There was a two-week long episode of “Holiday” or “Wish you were here…?”—perhaps it should have been “Wish you weren’t here…?”—and, of course, the voters switched off in terminal embarrassment.

To their immense credit, the Tories decided to move on this week and we got their big idea.

It was just like the movies—the old ones are the best.

It was not to close the opportunity gap but to widen it.

We were to have a £4 billion tax carrot.

If that is not enough, their other big idea was to abolish the new deal that has put more than 100,000 Scots back to work, thereby tackling unemployment, which is the single greatest cause of poverty.

Perhaps the Tories think that the disappearance of unemployment from the radar screen of public consciousness is an accident of history or good timing.

I suggest that they look to France and Germany and see those countries struggling with 10 per cent unemployment and the misery that that brings.

Indeed, the Tories’ big ideas proved so popular with their voters, their supporters, their members and even their MPs that all of them are slowly but surely seeking safe refuge in the Labour party.

I say to Bill Aitken and Mary Scanlon that it is never too late.

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): Does the member commend Labour’s big idea of 66 tax rises in the past seven years as a means of closing the opportunity gap?

Ms Alexander: I will talk about what we have done to close the opportunity gap in a moment. Let us leave the Tories to their misery and turn to the SNP.

In fairness, the SNP had a big idea for the start of the year, but it was not about closing the opportunity gap; it was about the constitutional crisis and having an army, a navy, an inland revenue, a diplomatic corps, a foreign office and a Scottish security service.

After all that, it might get round to being about closing the opportunity gap.

To be fair to the SNP—and Christine Grahame said this—that is not the Scottish Parliament’s fault.

The SNP says that we cannot close the gap because we do not have the powers.

We are meant to forget about our powers in health, education and housing.

Let us take the SNP at its word and consider the response of Alex Salmond and the SNP to the Queen’s speech at Westminster.

Let us see what the SNP’s priorities are for closing the gap.

It calls for a war powers bill, a ministerial accountability bill, withdrawal of coalition troops, a common fisheries policy change, financial autonomy, measures on energy, an armed forces bill and a Scottish Parliament European representation act—whatever that might be.

Finally, it talks about pensioners.

Only one out of nine proposals is about closing the gap.

Perhaps nice Nicola Sturgeon cares about closing the opportunity gap.

Fifteen First Minister’s questions later and we have had questions on troops, rates, holidays, the Fraser inquiry and ministerial performance.

How many times have we had questions on unemployment or child poverty?

Not once, because for the SNP, too, the old ones are the best—it perpetuates the cruel fraud that independence is the answer to every awkward question.

Christine Grahame rightly said that taxation is the answer.

Perhaps she can enlighten us, because what I know of SNP tax policy is that it is about cutting business rates and corporation tax, and, as we heard this morning, about ending taxation on property.

That is an interesting policy in relation to closing the opportunity gap.

People in Scotland are not daft, as we say here.

They let all the holiday hoo-has and the court politics of TBs and GBs wash over them.

They want a Government that closes the gap.

We failed people for 20 years because they did not trust my party—they feared that unemployment and inflation would be the price of closing the gap.

However, after eight years of the current Labour Government, the situation is not like that.

Today, people have better maternity leave and guaranteed nursery places; better schools and hospitals are being built; and there is a minimum wage.

I will not repeat the whole list because people know it.

In politics, we cannot expect gratitude, but voters make a judgment.

The exciting thing is that our ambitions for closing the gap are getting not smaller, but bigger.

We are now on track to halve child poverty not only at home.

Closing the gap is about so much more if we are willing to think big.

Having taken 3,000 children per constituency in Scotland out of poverty, members in this part of the chamber have as their ambition to start closing the gap around the globe as well, and to ensure that, in the next 10 years, every child becomes able to go to school and that we seek to halve world poverty not in 100 years, but in 10 years.

Later this year in Scotland, world leaders and other parties will decide whether to back that ambition and show how to close the gap both at home and abroad.

That is a big idea for politics, for Scotland and for our future. It has been a somewhat strange start to the parliamentary year.

We all returned from our holiday chastened by the terrible tsunami.

Then we paused.

Would the New Year herald the warm-up period for that big clash of ideas: the competing visions for Scotland’s future being fiercely debated here and at Westminster, those crucibles of Scottish democracy?

It was not quite like that.

There was a two-week long episode of “Holiday” or “Wish you were here…?”-perhaps it should have been “Wish you weren’t here…?”-and, of course, the voters switched off in terminal embarrassment.

To their immense credit, the Tories decided to move on this week and we got their big idea.

It was just like the movies-the old ones are the best.

It was not to close the opportunity gap but to widen it.

We were to have a £4 billion tax carrot.

If that is not enough, their other big idea was to abolish the new deal that has put more than 100,000 Scots back to work, thereby tackling unemployment, which is the single greatest cause of poverty.

Perhaps the Tories think that the disappearance of unemployment from the radar screen of public consciousness is an accident of history or good timing.

I suggest that they look to France and Germany and see those countries struggling with 10 per cent unemployment and the misery that that brings.

Indeed, the Tories’ big ideas proved so popular with their voters, their supporters, their members and even their MPs that all of them are slowly but surely seeking safe refuge in the Labour party.

I say to Bill Aitken and Mary Scanlon that it is never too late.

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): Does the member commend Labour’s big idea of 66 tax rises in the past seven years as a means of closing the opportunity gap?

Ms Alexander: I will talk about what we have done to close the opportunity gap in a moment. Let us leave the Tories to their misery and turn to the SNP.

In fairness, the SNP had a big idea for the start of the year, but it was not about closing the opportunity gap; it was about the constitutional crisis and having an army, a navy, an inland revenue, a diplomatic corps, a foreign office and a Scottish security service.

After all that, it might get round to being about closing the opportunity gap.

To be fair to the SNP-and Christine Grahame said this-that is not the Scottish Parliament’s fault.

The SNP says that we cannot close the gap because we do not have the powers.

We are meant to forget about our powers in health, education and housing.

Let us take the SNP at its word and consider the response of Alex Salmond and the SNP to the Queen’s speech at Westminster.

Let us see what the SNP’s priorities are for closing the gap.

It calls for a war powers bill, a ministerial accountability bill, withdrawal of coalition troops, a common fisheries policy change, financial autonomy, measures on energy, an armed forces bill and a Scottish Parliament European representation act-whatever that might be.

Finally, it talks about pensioners.

Only one out of nine proposals is about closing the gap.

Perhaps nice Nicola Sturgeon cares about closing the opportunity gap.

Fifteen First Minister’s questions later and we have had questions on troops, rates, holidays, the Fraser inquiry and ministerial performance.

How many times have we had questions on unemployment or child poverty?

Not once, because for the SNP, too, the old ones are the best-it perpetuates the cruel fraud that independence is the answer to every awkward question.

Christine Grahame rightly said that taxation is the answer.

Perhaps she can enlighten us, because what I know of SNP tax policy is that it is about cutting business rates and corporation tax, and, as we heard this morning, about ending taxation on property.

That is an interesting policy in relation to closing the opportunity gap.

People in Scotland are not daft, as we say here.

They let all the holiday hoo-has and the court politics of TBs and GBs wash over them.

They want a Government that closes the gap.

We failed people for 20 years because they did not trust my party-they feared that unemployment and inflation would be the price of closing the gap.

However, after eight years of the current Labour Government, the situation is not like that.

Today, people have better maternity leave and guaranteed nursery places; better schools and hospitals are being built; and there is a minimum wage.

I will not repeat the whole list because people know it.

In politics, we cannot expect gratitude, but voters make a judgment.

The exciting thing is that our ambitions for closing the gap are getting not smaller, but bigger.

We are now on track to halve child poverty not only at home.

Closing the gap is about so much more if we are willing to think big.

Having taken 3,000 children per constituency in Scotland out of poverty, members in this part of the chamber have as their ambition to start closing the gap around the globe as well, and to ensure that, in the next 10 years, every child becomes able to go to school and that we seek to halve world poverty not in 100 years, but in 10 years.

Later this year in Scotland, world leaders and other parties will decide whether to back that ambition and show how to close the gap both at home and abroad.

That is a big idea for politics, for Scotland and for our future.