2 weeks Ago
I attended Christina McKelvie’s funeral last Friday and was honoured to have been asked to pipe in my role as parliamentary piper. As I reflected in a previous column, Christina was the best of us in so many ways. She was extremely passionate about issues she cared about.
She was fiercely determined, yet had such a soft, caring and kind approach to so much of what she did. The fact politicians from across the political divide loved and admired Christina tells a tale about how she carried herself and importantly, how she did politics. It was a beautiful service and a fitting tribute to a woman who will be so dearly missed by so many people.
I believe that nationalising the plant is the right thing to do. Politicians from Wales are quite rightly angered because last year when the steel plant in Port Talbot was under threat, the same action didn’t take place – meaning 2,800 people lost their jobs and steel making in South Wales ended. Here in Scotland, we have the ridiculous situation that oil and gas producing Scotland will lose its last refinery in Grangemouth.
Why is this not being nationalised? No matter the sums of money already announced to be invested in the facility, nationalisation provides the greatest opportunity to safeguard its future. I appreciate there will be some people who will say the Scottish Government could have nationalised the refinery. However, as a devolved Parliament with limited powers and finances, this wasn’t an option.
As the UK Parliament holds all powers and access to finance, it’s sadly their responsibility. Despite pledges to save the Grangemouth before last year’s election, Labour turned their back on the plant as soon as they came to power. We have now learned that if either Port Talbot or Grangemouth was in England, like Scunthorpe, the money and political will could be found to save it.
The events of the last week yet again underline why the devolved powers are limiting Scotland’s ambitions and why we need independence. Already, the SNP Scottish Government has taken a different approach which ensures the people of Scotland enjoy the highest levels of public services anywhere in the UK. We all benefit from policies that are not available to people south of the border, including free tuition, free prescriptions, free eye tests, free bus passes for under 22’s and over 60’s, expanded early learning and childcare, and the Scottish Child Payment.
Plus, since coming to power, the SNP Scottish Government has spent a total of £1.2 billion mitigating Westminster policies. An independent Scotland can do better than merely mitigation.
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