Bella Caledonia asked for submissions imagining what Scotland might be like in 2042. I submitted the following. (I did not win.)
“My fellow MSPs,
It is my privilege to address you on this historic occasion. We will all, as a nation, be proud to have shared this moment here today in 2042. Our achievement is not one of politicians but one of people coming together for the common weal – just as those who set up this parliament in the last century demanded.
And it has needed that common purpose, considering the condition of Scotland when we first took over after the wasted years of the old sterile Nationalist vs Unionist battle. That was of course ended when my predecessor sought an extra-parliamentary mandate for independence – and the sorry collapse of that venture into national recrimination and mutual animosity. Scotland at that moment faced a real choice – whether to persist down the road to endless strife and – who knows where? We will never know how close we were to the sort of societal breakdown which disfigured Northern Ireland for decades in the late 20th century.
So while I was pleased to take the mantle of First Minister, I had few illusions about the size of the task ahead. But the weight of that task also meant that I had no choice: Scotland needed to be brought together because the alternative was just too dangerous to contemplate. That is why I actively welcomed the chance to lead a coalition government, even if it was a minority. I also welcomed the chance to work with the Holyrood Tories – and I could remind the Nationalists that the 2007 SNP government had used exactly the same arrangement.
Moreover, my task – my mission – was bring Scots of all political persuasions together, and had to include those with whom we disagree on so many things, but with whom we have more in common – especially our love of and aspirations for Scotland and its people.
So our first task was to restore to Scotland’s politics that mutual respect had been missing: in this we were much helped by the eviction of a UK government which had ruled with distrust, arrogance and animosity in equal measures and its replacement by the Keir Starmer regime. In particular, the introduction of Proportional Representation for MPs meant that Scotland (like the rest of the UK) could be seen for the glorious multiplicity of its political views, all of which would be represented fairly.
The inversion of the old politics was complete: parties only commanding a minority of votes were no longer allowed to dominate with their absolutist doctrinaire attitudes: the myths of “Tory England” and “Nationalist Scotland” were dispatched to the dustbin of history where they have stayed. Instead, Scotland has enjoyed a stable and comfortable position in the UK, and like Wales, Northern Ireland and the regions of England, has benefitted from the support and redistribution that followed.
Having established Scotland’s New Politics, and with the support of Westminster, we set about rebuilding the country for the post-Covid and Climate Emergency era. We knew that to do so, we needed to harness the power of localism. So we set about the biggest-ever decentralisation of power that we have ever seen: we in Holyrood transferred as much operational decision-making as possible to new regional authorities, all with real powers for public health, environmental protection and transport – and all backed by their own tax-raising powers and generous central grants. And below these regional authorities, we now have Burgh Councils. We have restored to our towns provosts and local councils that can address the problems of their high streets and their housing estates. The dead hand of Holyrood has been lifted from local services and decision-making.
The late Scottish Labour radical Robin Cook used to say: “if we want to change the country, we need to have the support of the majority to do so.” Conversely, when you have the support of the majority, you can use it in one of two ways. The first is to use it for your own political ends, as the old SNP administrations had; and the second way is the way we have taken – to use it for the good of all.
That is why we now have a modern and efficient railway in Scotland; it is why our islands now have a modern and efficient fleet of ferries; and why our roads now boast civil engineering achievements like the A83 Rest And Be Thankful Tunnel.
And even more importantly, it is why we now are now investing so heavily in our children: our decision to have the best STEM education in Europe in a fifteen-year period is on course to create a wonderful academic and practical resource – we are the envy of the world.
Likewise our revolution in food and nutrition has changed the population’s views and habits literally from the ground up – we now all know the value of microbes in soil and the value of sustainable farming and above all how that effects what we should grow, how we should shop and how we must cook and eat in future.
Before we took power, Scotland was at the edge of an abyss. We have looked into that abyss and we have turned our backs on it. Like President Kennedy said about space travel eighty years ago: we choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. In the same way, our achievements are the result of working hard at working together, rather than working hard at tearing ourselves apart.
Which is why I now stand before you with this historic piece of legislation. We have promulgated this Act to ensure that our children and their children will never again be neglected in their education and their wellbeing, relegated behind the constitutional obsessions of politicians. And never again will this Parliament be deflected from our historic task of making Scotland the best possible place that it can be.
I celebrate the passing of the New Act of Union and commend it to Scotland.”
Planet Pedro! 