Nine short months

The clock ticks on, the page turns, we face new challenges.

This week saw the announcement of the Programme for Government for the final session of the first term of the SNP Government.  In fact, it’s the final year of the first term in which Scotland actually had a Government.  The first time that Ministers in Holyrood had the courage to act like a Government.

With only 34 weeks left until the Scottish people go to the polls again to tell us what they think of how we’ve done, nine months for the electorate to weigh the performance of the SNP Government and the prospects for the future of the SNP Government against the might of the Labour benches and what’s being offered from that elevated perspective.  They’ll be weighing Alex Salmond against Iain Gray; Kenny MacAskill against Richard Baker; Nicola Sturgeon against Jackie Baillie; John Swinney against Andy Kerr; SNP against Labour – one or other of us will provide the First Minister and Government after the election.  SNP or Labour, Salmond or Gray.

Well, we’ve seen the colour of the SNP ambition this week, the plans that the current Ministers have come up with, that the current SNP Government put forward in the plans for the next wee while.  There are 10 bills planned –

# Forced Marriage etc. (Protection and Jurisdiction) Bill – to protect people, often very young or vulnerable people, who are or might be forced into marriages against their will and to provide third-party support for them.  It will also make the legal remedies easier to access.

# Health (Certification of Death) Bill – to clear up the differences in how deaths, cremations and burials are handled and recorded and to provide better health information to help direct resources.

# Public Records Bill – create a new framework to ensure that records are kept properly (comes from the recommendations of a report into abuses of children in care).

# Double Jeopardy Bill – so that prosecution can be reopened where substantial new evidence is brought forward about a case which has been disposed of.

# Local Electoral Administration Bill – Holyrood has just taken over responsibility for local government elections from the Scotland Office and we’re putting legislation in place to make sure we don’t have a fiasco like the 2007 election.

# Long Leases Bill – reforming Scottish property law so ultra-long leases can be converted in ownership with appropriate compensation from tenants to landlords.

# Private Rented Housing Bill – to tackle unscrupulous rogue landlords who operate outwith the law and make life a misery for tenants and their neighbours, destroy communities and tarnish the reputation of the many good private landlords in Scotland.

# Reservoir Safety Bill – for some bizarre reason only the biggest reservoirs in Scotland are regulated under the legislation that was passed in London in 1975, leaving people beside the smaller ones without any protection.  This Bill will change that and offer appropriate protection and regulation.

# Budget Bill – well, we do it every year and it’s always good fun with a minority government!

# Scottish Water Bill – to enshrine Scottish Water in public ownership and to give it the flexibility to deliver its services in accordance with future needs.

On top of that, we’re in the middle of some other legislation which will have to be completed:
* Alcohol Etc. (Scotland) Bill 
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/34-AlcoholEtc/index.htm (Ex)
* Autism (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/44-Autism/index.htm  (M)
* Children's Hearings (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/41-ChildrensHearing/index.htm  (Ex)
* Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/46-ComVic/index.htm  (M)
* Criminal Sentencing (Equity Fines)
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/48-CriminalSentencing/index.htm  (M)
* Damages (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/49-Damages/index.htm  (M)
* Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/45-DomesticAbuse/index.htm  (M)
* End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/38-EndLifeAssist/index.htm  (M)
* Forth Crossing Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/33-ForthCrossing/index.htm  (H)
* Historic Environment (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/43-HistoricEnvironment/index.htm  (Ex)
* Housing (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/36-Housing/index.htm  (Ex)
* Legal Services (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/30-legalServices/index.htm  (Ex)
* Palliative Care (Scotland) Bill 
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/50-PalliativeCare/index.htm (M)
* Patient Rights (Scotland) Bill 
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/42-PatientRights/index.htm (Ex)
* Property Factors (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/51-PropertyFactors/index.htm  (M)
* Protection of Workers (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/47-ProtectWorkers/index.htm  (M)
* Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/52-WildNatEnv/index.htm  (E)

But that’s just the legislation; there are also the current strategies, current work and plans about to be implemented:

* 40,000 training places, including 20,000 modern apprenticeship starts and 5,000 flexible training opportunities
* completing the M80 Stepps to Haggs upgrade
* completing the M74
* finishing the Airdrie to Bathgate rail link
* getting on with the Forth replacement crossing
* a new child poverty strategy (anti-poverty, of course)
* continuing to support the armed forces and veterans community
* implementing the curriculum for excellence
* regulations to establish a maximum primary 1 class size of 25
* continue to pursue the perpetrators of serious and organised crime
* create the community payback order

Iain Gray’s first comments in response were that these plans for the next nine months were “not substantial” but he didn’t actually talk about any alternatives that he might have in mind.  He did say that he would have built the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (I imagine he didn’t mean that he would have built it personally) but he refused to say what he would have cut to build it – he didn’t say anything about what should be done now.

We only know of two ideas from Labour – the first is the idea they’ve been bouncing about for a couple of months now, they think that Council Tax should go up, that the freeze should be abandoned (it’s be an increase of somewhere like 14% just to cover what the Scottish Government has pumped in so far to keep the freeze on); and the second one began today as Labour started saying that we should impose the 3% tartan tax (on top of all the other tax we have to shell out for) so we can cover some of the shortfall in public spending caused by the incompetence of the Labour Government under Gordon Brown.  That’s Labour’s problem, they always think that someone else will pick up the tab for them and it’s always us, the people who pay taxes.  It’s a burden enough for people like me who are on a good wage but increases like that would just bury some people, really hurt people who are just getting by just now.  I’ve actually had a couple of people telling me about the difficulties they already face and how even a small increase in Council Tax just would not be sustainable for them, how they struggle just now on low wages but do what they can to give their children decent lives.  Labour would impose that Council Tax rise and send these families into freefall and then add to that with income tax rises.

Higher Council Tax and higher income tax from Labour but not one of these tribunes of the people ever has the courage to call for a progressive taxation system, not one of them dares to suggest that we should have fairer tax, it never even enters their heads that people who are better off (like those of us on an MSP’s wage) should pay a bit more in local taxation than people who have less money – that would be a local income tax and they don’t have the guts to call for something that is fair.

Well, the ground is laid out, the election is coming in 34 weeks – who do you think is putting forward plans to take Scotland forward and who do you think is trying to remember the motions so they can go through them?  It’s not going to be a pretty election, we’re not going to be blessed with flowing oratory and the interplay of great wit, we’re not going to hear principles pitched against each other, we’re going to be laying out our plans and defending our record, I don’t expect any great ideas from Labour but I do expect the political equivalent of a Neanderthal grunt and the whine of “it’s no fair” to float across from them.

I look forward to laying out the SNP case and I look forward to carrying our banner.  There’s a long, hard road to travel and we’ve already set out.  Let’s make this Scotland’s election!

Christina McKelvie MSP