TOM HARRIS: How the demented agenda of Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP has condemned Scotland to a summer of discontent
Edinburgh was once known as the Athens of the North. Today it is Scotland’s rubbish dump.
Nearly a million visitors from across the globe travel to Scotland’s capital every year to sample the cultural delights of the Edinburgh Festival and stroll through the streets of a city blessed with breathtaking architecture, historic monuments and, of course, a mighty fortress.
But this year they have been greeted by the ugly sight of overflowing bins and rotting garbage on every corner, the pungent stench of decay, and — should they be bold enough to order a coffee at a pavement cafe — the sight of rats scurrying among the chairs and tables.
A 12-day strike by refuse collectors in the city means that the seat of the country’s parliament has rarely been in a more parlous state just as the eyes of the world are fixed upon it.
Edinburgh was once known as the Athens of the North. Today it is Scotland’s rubbish dump
How on earth did it come to this? The answer, of course, lies in Scotland’s politics. If you’re a Scot Nat, you’ll blame the Labour-led Edinburgh City Council for not offering the bin workers a big enough pay rise.
If you’re a Labour supporter, you’ll argue that Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP administration at Holyrood is not funding local authorities generously enough to allow them to settle outstanding pay demands.
If you’re a Conservative, you’ll just breathe a sigh of relief that — for once —your party isn’t in the frame.
Unfortunately for the SNP, this row has blown up just as new economic data showed that every Scot received a record ‘Union dividend’, an average of nearly £2,000 more from the taxpayer than people in the rest of the UK.
Official Scottish government figures released on Wednesday showed that Scots benefited from an average of £1,963 more public spending in 2021/22 than the UK norm, with the gap surging from the previous year’s £1,530.
If you’re a Labour supporter, you’ll argue that Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP administration at Holyrood is not funding local authorities generously enough to allow them to settle outstanding pay demands
It all adds up to a summer of discontent north of the border for the SNP, because on Thursday the Unite union served notice of strike action in education and waste services across no fewer than 20 council areas in Scotland.
And these issues are only the latest in a long and embarrassing list of setbacks presided over by Sturgeon and her lieutenants. Indeed, it’s not going too far to say that the record of devolved government in Scotland reads more like a charge sheet than a list of accomplishments.
Only this month, the SNP’s lamentable performance on education was exposed by exam results that showed there has been an abject failure to narrow the attainment gap between schools in better off and poorer areas.
In the health sphere it appears to be incapable of opening new hospitals on schedule, the most egregious example of this being the case of Edinburgh’s Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, which was finally opened in March last year — nine years late.
Meanwhile, a number of those that have been opened have suffered severe teething troubles, with ventilation flaws identified at Glasgow’s £1 billion Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where two patients, including a ten-year-old boy, died after contracting a rare fungal infection linked to pigeon droppings.
And it’s not only on bread and butter issues that the SNP falls short. Its attempts to procure new ferries to serve Scotland’s island communities have degenerated into farce, with the Glen Sannox — a vessel launched by Sturgeon in 2017 with windows painted on to make the ship appear finished for the occasion — still yet to enter service almost five years later.
Yet in response to every new failure, every fresh crisis that appears on the horizon, Miss Sturgeon and her colleagues react in exactly the same way: with ill-concealed impatience — as if they resent having to spend time sorting out other people’s problems when there are more important things to do. Like campaign for independence, for example.
And here lies the nub of the issue. The other parties in Scotland enjoy at least one advantage over the SNP: many of their members became politically active because of a deep concern for —and sometimes long experience in — a particular policy area.
Labour Party branch meetings are not short of individuals with a passion for social policy, education and the economy, who are brimming with ideas on how to reduce inequalities, raise standards and spend taxes.
Similarly, local Conservative associations have many members who are experienced business leaders and job creators, enthusiastic about developing policies that will promote economic growth or reduce red tape.
The SNP is a very different beast, however. No one ever joins that party in order to raise school standards or improve NHS funding.
There is only one reason to sign up, and it is the same, defining motive that stays with every SNP activist as they climb the greasy pole. However senior they become, however much power and influence they accumulate, their aim is always the same as it was at the start: independence.
Everything else is secondary to that goal. Better results in Scotland’s schools, a cleaner environment, improved transport networks — these would all be welcome, of course, but not as ends in themselves.
They are mere stepping stones the party must negotiate as it heads for the only destination it cares about: the creation of an independent country outside of the UK.
While this gives SNP politicians a single-minded determination that has made their party the most formidable vote-winning machine in the country, it comes with disadvantages.
Your average nationalist is most happy when he or she is taking part in a march, waving a flag, shouting slogans about self-determination, and discussing independence with people who agree with them.
In comparison, the dull day-to-day trudge of government must be frustrating in the extreme.
For, make no mistake, being a minister is hard — I know this from personal experience.
You work long hours and for every popular decision you take, you make at least two unpopular ones. Mastering any ministerial portfolio requires a firm grasp of the detail, and absorbing that can be hard work in itself.
But at the end of each day, so long as you feel the country is in a slightly better shape as a result of your graft, then it’s worth it.
But what if you reckon that none of this is as important as manufacturing another grievance to wield in the battle for independence?
More importantly, if the opinion polls tell you that despite a succession of high-profile government failures, your party is still by far the most popular one in the country, why bother changing course?
In Scotland, the SNP’s failure to deliver has been repeatedly endorsed and approved by the electorate. No wonder ministers feel no pressure to up their game.
Meanwhile local services deteriorate and citizens of, and visitors to, our capital are forced to wade through piles of rubbish while dodging rats — the only residents of Edinburgh who are enjoying the current sorry state of affairs.
It might be argued that the current crop of Holyrood’s policy failures has arisen from ministers taking their eye off the ball. But that would assume they had their eye on the ball in the first place.
There is only one target the SNP care about. And nothing — neither the cleanliness of our streets nor efficient administration of government — must be allowed to deflect ministers from that one overriding, non-negotiable priority.
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