Why new Scots Tory leader Russell Findlay can learn from Labour’s Jack McConnell

The old Labour catchphrase ‘do less, better’ was not exactly inspirational, but the bloated bureaucracy that is the Scottish Government is ripe for such an approach

When Scottish Labour still thought it would rule the Scottish Parliament in eternity, during Jack McConnell’s stint as First Minister they briefly came up with the catchphrase “do less, better” until they realised that removing the comma wasn’t quite the message they wished to convey.

Even with punctuation, it was hardly the most inspiring, but there was something in it; limit the number of initiatives to those with most impact on voters, and ensure they were delivered well. Apart from the indoor smoking ban, it’s hard to recall what else was achieved in the 2003-07 parliament, so the first part of the promise was certainly met. But at least it recognised that a scatter-gun of mediocrity and failed policies would just present opportunities for opponents, as the SNP is discovering now.

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The SNP minority administration under Alex Salmond in 2007-11 took a leaf from that book, with free prescriptions and university tuition the things most people remember from that time. But despite protestations about child welfare payments and the baby box, the SNP’s record in the following 13 years has been one in which mediocrity in key responsibilities like health and education would be an improvement, accompanied by a long list of failures and divisive polices which set it against a clear majority of voters. The madness of gender recognition reform is still being exposed, with Rape Crisis Scotland enduring a crisis of its own and chief executive Sandy Brindley revealed as someone who fully supported allowing biological men to counsel victims, even against their wishes.

With Scottish Labour and the Lib Dems as enthusiastic about much of the divisive programme as the SNP, the new Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay has quickly found a way to sum up the problem in a slogan of his own, “common sense, for a change” which works with or without the comma. His claim that “the Scottish Parliament is the place most in need of a hard reality check” will chime with more than a few. But the problem he faces is only a tiny handful of voters will be aware of what he had to say at the Conservative conference in Birmingham on Sunday, so the priority is not just coming up with policies to match the soundbites, but the visibility to get them noticed.

Lib-Lab-Nat left consensus

With only 18 months to go before the next Holyrood election, raising his profile to the level which makes a difference is a tall order, but at least his back story as an investigative journalist who was the target of a vicious gangland attack in front of his daughter ─ from which his assailant very much came off second best ─ gives him a head start, not least with an extensive media contacts book. But the novelty value will only go so far, and turning “common sense” from a slogan into a viable offer will be crucial, not just to provide an alternative to the Lib-Lab-Nat left consensus but to reverse the flow of Conservative voters to Reform.

New Scottish Conservative party leader Russell Findlay's slogan 'common sense, for a change' could be augmented by a commitment towards smaller government (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell)New Scottish Conservative party leader Russell Findlay's slogan 'common sense, for a change' could be augmented by a commitment towards smaller government (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell)
New Scottish Conservative party leader Russell Findlay's slogan 'common sense, for a change' could be augmented by a commitment towards smaller government (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images

At the heart of his conference speech was a section on the NHS and what some will see as a provocative suggestion that driving change would mean “sacking ineffective but highly paid managers or tackling the vested interests of the health service”. Easier said than done, but many voters would agree and his suggestion that 14 health boards are too many at least gave an indication of how a bonfire of bureaucracy might be achieved.

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That comes back to the old Labour slogan, but not in the way Jack McConnell envisaged. Most sensible people would say aye to doing better with less, certainly as far as tax, bureaucrats and politicians are concerned.

Gravy train at the terminus

There is no way to reduce the tax burden without cutting expenditure, and why stop at a cull of health boards? Duplication in Scotland’s 32 local authorities is ripe for pruning but would need to be accompanied with the end of blocks on compulsory redundancies which saddles councils with needless costs.

Similarly, the proportionate system has created scores of councillors – 85 in Glasgow and 63 in Edinburgh – which gives some of them cover to do nothing except turn up. Councils wouldn’t be worse with fewer councillors, and in any case the amount saved is less important than signalling the gravy train is at the terminus.

But there is no more bloated public body than the Scottish Government itself, a vast bureaucracy administering public services which dwarfs that of the pre-devolution era when the same services were the responsibility of a handful of Scottish Office ministers.

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Universal benefits

With only around 16 per cent of voters in favour of scrapping the Scottish Parliament altogether, abolition is not an option for a party aiming at the mainstream, but pollsters haven’t asked how many would support a slimmed down Scottish Government; leaner, fitter and focussed on key services, as Russell Findlay said it should be. Just because over 80 per cent of people support the principle of a Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government, it doesn’t have to be this one. Fewer politicians, bureaucrats and inefficient managers shouldn’t just stop at the NHS.

After a difficult start, Ruth Davidson scotched the myth that voters wouldn’t vote Conservative even if they agreed with its policies, which research shows significant numbers do. Welfare reform, for example, is more popular than the left consensus would like to believe.

The Social Attitudes Survey lumps welfare in with health and education, yet there is no majority for increasing tax to fund services, and according to a YouGov poll, only a third of people support ending the two-child benefit cap. So too are universal giveaways like over-the-counter drugs on prescription understood as poor uses of public money. But unlike the left argument, as put forward by ex-Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, the aim would be to return it to taxpayers, not keep it for more public spending.

Do better with less. It’s just common sense.

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