The Scottish
media saw a flurry of activity last week over the apparent leaking of a year old report from John Swinney the
Cabinet Secretary that cautioned his cabinet colleagues on the balance of
available revenues and the ambitions for public service improvements that they
might all have.
The
headlines were all about an independent Scotland not being able to afford state
pension payments and various other looming disasters that such
a constitutional change might
mean for us . It was claimed – by some – to be a huge blow to the ‘Yes’
campaign
Personally,
I incline to the view that it’s the cover- up that will do the damage to the Yes campaign ; look
at Nixon [ ex President ] ; Huhne [ ex various things]. It is getting to be a b
it of a habit for this SNP government -
or maybe they just get found out more often.
Reviewing what kind of social entitlements and cash
benefits we should have, and any society can afford, and the way in which they actually serve the
kind of social purpose those who introduce them
argue for, is just the kind of
discussion we should have in a mature democracy . However…….maybe we don’t really
live in a mature democracy ?
I have
recently been in discussions with different groups of people where ] we have
talked about benefits/entitlements / costs etc . Although at one meeting I was labelled as being in favour of ‘means testing ‘ the
discussion in each case was generally
quite reflective .
I am not in
favour of ‘means testing’ , although I must admit if I could find another phrase that could
replace that old cliché , I’d ©; ™; or ® it faster than the speed of light and licence it to every
government around, cos they’re all looking for something similar.
What I am in
favour of is a more reflective and
candid discussion than we generally have about the reach and purpose of various
forms of social and cash entitlements
& benefits , many of which go remarkably unexamined . The reason I
argue for this is that we could then have a clearer sense of what we’re trying
to achieve through our wide range of service entitlements and cash benefits .
Consider 3 different forms of entitlement /benefit
/service that are :
A] Universal
in form; that available to everyone who meets certain criteria [ often age or
capability related] and are totally un-related
to any individual or household income; and
B] Either
politically entrenched as a hot rail
issue for every party or just
plain taken for granted and never explored in any broader context.
C] A benefit
or service than I access , enjoy or use so
have direct participant experience of .
Now I could
write pages and pages on each of these benefits, with comparison and data to support my arguments , but
here I’ve included just one
factor that I think shows why we might,
at the very least, talk about these more thoughtfully than we do at present .
- In ‘The Scotsman ‘ this week-end , Tiffany
Jenkins wrote a persuasive [ though poorly evidenced] commentary on
maintaining free entry to galleries and museums . I’m one of those people
who goes to such galleries and museums a lot , in various places
throughout the UK . On that same Saturday afternoon I went to the theatre
, where I was expected – and I expected – to pay for my ticket . Why are the visuals arts privileged
over the performing arts – and has anyone even noticed that they are ?
- I recently bought
a painting and paid for it ; that’s unsurprising isn’t it . The
previous painting we bought – or technically are still buying – was
purchase through the ‘Own Art ‘
scheme operated by Creative Scotland [ and the sister organisations in
NIreland and England] . My purchase was interest free over 10 months and
no deposit required . Probably the best credit terms you can get . It’s
operated through Hitachi Capital – who, not being a charity , I imagine get their interest on the loan
paid by somebody . Those of you who
are taxpayers and don’t buy such pieces of art financed my loan .Thanks for that folks; I really am
grateful .
- I have a
bus pass – or as it is technically referred to – ‘a national entitlement
card ‘. Since I used to buy a monthly pass for Lothian Buses anyway, I have a pretty good idea what such bus access
would cost me – if you could buy an all Scotland season ticket – and
reckon it worth about £90 or so a month. Of course pre-tax it's worth a lot more than that to some of the beneficiaries. I am fortunate enough to live in
a city with one of the best bus services in the country close to a route where I can get on any one of 12 or so services ,
rarely waiting for more 2 or 3 minutes . We have family who live in
Perthshire where there is one bus service. Other than at either end of the
school day , services are hourly or so , except in the evening when they
are 2 hourly . In such villages, and many other parts of Scotland, access
to car is a necessity rather than
an added convenience . Is a
‘transport voucher ‘ of this kind as valuable to the 000’s of people in
Scotland who don’t have the same kind of access to frequent bus services
of the kind I have ?
The
discussion we should be having is surely that in circumstances where all
resources are scarce – and they always are scarce – what’s the optimal way of
organising taxes; benefits and charges
to the best advantage of those people we claim we’re doing that for.