Scotland the bold: 10 ideas for making our country great

Something is clearly wrong with business-as-usual politics. People across the developed world are looking for new advocates – often of a populist and unattractive kind – from Trump to Farage, from Le Pen to Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.

The UK isn’t immune to this. It faces multiple crises: economic, financial, geopolitical. Even more seriously, the Brexit vote undermines British post-war foreign policy, and leaves the country facing its most profound set of international challenges since Munich and appeasement.

Right now, the UK faces an existential threat. The very nature and continuation of the United Kingdom is in question.

Against all this, Scotland has become politically, socially and culturally a different place – from what it was historically, and from the rest of the UK. Power and authority have shifted not just from London to Edinburgh, but within Scotland.

Following the Brexit vote, no-one can claim that there aren’t profound differences between Scotland and the rest of the UK. There are also deep similarities, but the nature of "the greatest union in human history" will be seen as threadbare if Scotland’s 62 per cent vote to remain in the EU is dismissed because the question on the ballot paper only asked about whether the UK should stay.

However, Scotland cannot debate the failings of the UK and merely posit that Holyrood replaces Westminster as the centre of political decisions without some reflection. Too often the SNP reduces independence to "the full powers of a parliament" – equating this with becoming a "normal" nation. It is a limiting, dispiriting version of independence with politicians at its centre.

If the UK is in major crisis, the Union Scotland voted for in 2014 is no longer viable. Unionism itself is in doubt – and this is both a major opportunity and a challenge. It is essential that Scotland holds an open, honest debate about its future that thoroughly addresses what independence means.

Since the independence referendum, the SNP has held no major post-mortem on why Yes lost. Besides, wider pro-Yes opinion has not properly analysed weaknesses of the independence offer or proposed a revised proposal. It is fine and well to talk about whether to go short or long on a second referendum, but as we speak there is no independence package anywhere to put on the table.

This is because the SNP is speaking to various, very different, Scotlands. The first is to radical and left-wing independence supporters who it went out of its way to court in the first referendum. There is now an SNP assumption that many of this group are so disaffected from the union and Labour, they are onboard for the independence project come what may. The second group could be called "insider Scotland" and are looking for continuity and reassurance about independence as well as the maintenance of their place and position.

The premise behind SNP thinking is that, post-Brexit, independence is the new normal. This has attractions. It defines independence as a new common sense and moves the debate on to thinking differently about independence.

Yet independence as the new normal has problems. For starters, it positions Scotland as a place that doesn’t need to discuss its economic, social and democratic deficits. It gives undue weight to what could be called Alphabet Soup Scotland – the received wisdom of the likes of CBI, SCDI, SCVO, STUC and others – the complacent insider class who yearn for access and status around government.

Most importantly, it offers reassurance that everything is going to be alright – if not in the world, then in our bit of it. That just cannot be said – considering the state of the planet, future challenges, and Scotland.

Instead we should consider independence as the new normalcy – an attitude, spirit and mindset open to acknowledging our collective shortcomings and limitations, and the difficult debates that we must have. That process is not aided by closing down debate until after independence. For example, any future independence offer has to be different from last time: honest about the risks, straight-dealing on economics and the currency option, and candid that there will be difficult choices – particularly in the early years.

The role of the SNP is critical. They have contributed enormously to public life, but there is a contradiction between their risk-averse, trust-us politics and a society that has become more diverse, questioning and demanding of authority.

In 2014, this tension was apparent between the official Yes Scotland and the home-grown, grassroots campaign. It touched a cultural and generational divide seen across the West – between technocratic, institutional politics and a more diffuse, creative and human-centred approach. It isn’t an accident that many of the leaders of the former in the SNP found their way to independence in their teens and the 1980s, and keep faith in a view of the world from that era, whereas today’s millennials have little reason to believe that government and the state have their best interests at heart.

Independence as the new normal, and a safety-first Scotland, makes sense to the first group, but not to the second. For them, the world is about constant change and upheaval, and that is how they see independence. The status quo nation – of the SNP, Alphabet Soup and insiders – just doesn’t seem attractive or viable.

This leaves the question – what kind of change and disruption will emerge in the future, and who will gain from it? One possibility is a regressive, reactionary vision: of public spending cuts, greater inequality and systematic outsourcing and privatisation. It will have, post-independence, powerful advocates in the SNP leadership, civil service and business and consultancy firms.

Another possibility is to see disruption as a positive – as progressive and liberating – and to use the upheaval to call time on insider Scotland. Our closed-order elite society hasn’t empowered people, aided redistribution, or looked after the most vulnerable. At the least, change offers the prospect of bringing this into the open, challenging those powerful groups, and proposing that people and communities take more direct control of their lives and decisions.

In many respects, Scotland is already quasi-independent. We need to take the leap and start consistently acting like it: getting serious, strategic and engaging in difficult discussions.

This requires creating non-party, informed resources, such as independence-supporting think tanks, aiding the work done by Common Weal and others. This is not a project that the SNP seem interested in, as they prioritise the party as the means to independence, and view independent-minded ideas as a threat, inviting us instead to take independence as a leap of faith and to worry about detail later.

Scotland has to have a debate beyond the SNP about what independence means in the early 21st century, and about its constraints and opportunities. For some, all that matters is being a sovereign, independent country, but that constituency isn’t a majority and nor does it deal with the nature of globalisation and interdependence.

We have to talk about policy, practice and ideas to create the Scotland of the future. For my new book Scotland The Bold, I collected policy ideas for a different kind of society – whether we are independent or not – from over 80 individuals.

Several common threads emerged through this ad-hoc harvest of new thinking. People want to see the power of central government limited, and an emphasis on education in the widest sense. There is a wish for greater experimentation across all policy, developing pilots and different models such as self-governing state schools.

There was a quiet sense of disappointment with the SNP’s domestic record over nine years, including perceived caution and a "don’t scare the horses" approach, along with centralisation and the rise of a "Czar class". One person observed that: "The municipalism and paternalism of Glasgow City [Council] is now reproduced in Holyrood."

Bringing about a different Scotland requires national debate and a willingness to move beyond tribalism, blind loyalty and faith.

We have to think about a future Scotland which is comfortable and confident enough not to have to assert continually its nationalism. That future nation will than likely going come about with independence, so why don’t we start creating it now? It would not continue with the neo-liberal delusions of the British establishment, but nor would it be content with the timid social democracy which passes for much of our current politics.

Scotland could choose a different path. It could decide to embrace a mindset of self-determination – individually, collectively and as a set of communities.

It isn’t going to be enough to say "Not in My Name Britain" – and to cite Thatcher, Blair and Brexit. We need to look at ourselves, at our institutions, elites and practices, and embrace a national debate that could be summarised instead as "Not In My Name Scotland". Taking individual and collective responsibility for ourselves and our society, we would dare to say that health inequalities, educational apartheid, closed elites and partial democracy are not good enough for the citizens of modern Scotland.

This vision of modern Scotland would be true to the idea that all power and authority is contingent, and that we choose to embrace a Scotland which is a republic of the mind: where the substance, not just the symbolism of power is held by the people, for the people. Who knows, once we find we like it and increasingly trust each other, we might find that we want to become a formal republic too. There are big, tantalising issues that require proper and grown-up debate. That Scotland of the future is close and within our grasp.

Here are 10 of the boldest ideas for Scotland's future

1. Introduce a citizen’s income or basic income – an unconditional sum paid to every citizen which sends a signal to everyone in Scotland that they are equal and matter. This would counteract the deep divisions in the labour market and society, aid younger people, and address the future challenges of technology and greater automation. There could be a specific citizen’s income for those in the artistic and cultural community. Alleviating the impoverishment that affects even many of our best-known artists, this would be a national investment in our creative future.

2. Scrap the council tax and reorganise local government, addressing size and number of councils, and introducing fiscal reform. Scotland’s domestic rates have not been revalued since 1991. A land value tax linked to property size would be a fairer system, and less prone to prop up the housing bubble.

3. Set up a Citizens' Chamber as a second chamber of the Scottish Parliament, which urgently needs revision to reduce badly drafted laws. Different methods of election or selection could be considered – including a random selection of 50-100 people, which is regularly renewed on the same basis as a citizen’s jury.

4. Give a direct voice to local communities by establishing a a working committee in Holyrood which represents them. This would not include any councillors, members of public bodies or professional NGOs, but instead focus on involving members of the public.

5. Encourage a culture of public openness by publishing everyone’s tax returns, whether individual or corporate, as happens in Norway, and bringing everything from ownership of companies and land – addressing offshore and shell companies – into the open.

6. Adopt an innovative approach to education. Scotland The Bold contributors suggestions included incorporating private schools into the public sector, starting schooling at age seven rather than five, shifting the emphasis from exam performance to promoting life and work skills such as perseverance and communication, and distributing vouchers to adults to be spent on continuing education.

7. Require every trainee police officer, social worker and teacher to spend 100 hours working in a youth club in an area of multiple deprivation so that they fully understand the challenges facing many in Scotland.

8. Guarantee access to a therapist or counsellor for every secondary school pupil who requires one and provide all pupils with mental health assessments, ensuring they have resilience and confidence to make their way successfully into the world.

9. Prioritise making our country truly multilingual so that we can be global citizens at home and abroad – expanding opportunities and perspectives across generations and geographies.

10. Establish an international programme encouraging young people to contribute to anti-poverty, welfare and empowerment initiatives around the world, thus helping to promote global understanding, and ensure and outward-looking and interconnected future for Scotland.

Gerry Hassan is author of ‘Scotland The Bold: How Our Nation Has Changed And Why There Is No Going Back is published by Freight Books, £9.99

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