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One Year On

16 May 2008

One Year On

Arguably the Scottish National Party administration was voted into power a year ago on the back of electoral dissatisfaction with Labour at a UK level. The concept of Scottish independence was, in all probability, only in the minds of stanch SNP supporters who only represented a small minority of the electorate. SNP support has therefore rested on their ability to successfully govern within a devolved parliament where they do not have a majority of seats. One year on since their dramatic win and support for the SNP continues to grow proving outright that they seem to be doing things right. The First Minister Alex Salmond continues to enjoy positive ratings, while more people say they would now vote for the SNP that actually did so a year ago. Not only have they been able to run a country but they have also continued to develop and enhance the conversation on independence. Their National Conversation has moved past stage one and into stage two allowing for continued press coverage and maintain the debate within the minds of the general populace.

One might expect that tactically the unionist parties would try and avoid enhancing the conversation on independence and instead focus on gaining credibility amongst the electorate. The development of the Calman Commission on devolution appreciated the need to review the powers of the Scottish Parliament was clearly implemented as a means of counteracting the SNP’s National Conversation. The Commission was predicted to be the long-term focus for the Scottish Labour Party and their leader Wendy Alexander who, since taking over as leader has had a somewhat tremulous reign. Over the last year Labour have tendered to focus their efforts on claiming that the SNP are an administration of broken promises. Alexander’s decision therefore, to run head first into the independence debate by declaring her desire for an early referendum to clear the air, could have been a political master-stroke. Labour MSPs around Holyrood recognised that this could be an opportunity to call Alex Salmond’s buff and declare a “bring it on” mentality. Unfortunately it seems to have backfired, enlarging the gulf between the Labour party north and south of the border and putting independence right back at the top of the public mindset.

Examples of how the Church can engage in such debates have, over recent years, been few and far between. But encouragingly at a recent two day conference called Church Without Walls, the SNP Minister Bruce Crawford and Labour MSP Malcolm Chisholm hosted a seminar directly addressing the issue of Scottish Independence. The seminar provided an opportunity for the 7,000 plus conference delegates to engage with the debate over independence and so were encouraged to take part in deciding a ‘vision for Scotland’s future’. Examples such as this typify a renewed willingness of Scottish politicians to hear from a wide variety of voices within Scottish society, even though the media may try to convince us otherwise. Although we may be fearful of the system the Church has an opportunity to be at the fore of a debate that could fundamentally transform the United Kingdom

Alistair Stevenson

EA Scotland