Low-tax Scottish Tory leadership candidates need to be honest about spending cuts

Supposedly a reaction to the traditional Bob Monkhouse-style comedy with its roots in working men’s clubs, holiday camps and variety theatre, alternative comedy was overtly political, particularly in the 1987 general election, when Ben Elton led the Red Wedge tour in support of Neil Kinnock’s Labour party with its searing attacks on “Mrs Thatch”. I interviewed him in Barrow-in-Furness and very entertaining he was too. Not that it made much difference as Mrs Thatcher secured her second landslide, but it set a tone for comedy which lasts to this day.

So, on Saturday night at the Underbelly, Geoff Norcott provided a refreshing alternative to alternative, one of the few right-of-centre comedians on the circuit and, with Labour in government, the time has surely come for his blokeish brand (his act’s “Basic Bloke” title was a bit of a clue) of working class ‘Sahf London’ humour. It may be niche in Scotland, but at least Fringe comedy fans had a choice. And yes, he was hilarious.

The need for a credible right-of centre alternative is at the heart of the Scottish Conservatives’ leadership contest, and it too descended into hilarity last week when candidate Murdo Fraser MSP first proposed that his rivals Russell Findlay and Meghan Gallagher should stand down to allow him to be elected unopposed and, when this was greeted by widespread incredulity, then claimed he was just being cheeky. Sadly for the contest, it made a leading contender look at best trite, at worst ill-judged or ill-advised and, despite the support of Sir Malcolm Rifkind, undermined any claim to be the serious leader the Scottish Conservatives and the right need in serious times.

Reform’s rise in Scotland

The depth of the problem facing the new leader was laid bare by a Norstat poll for the Sunday Times, the first to show the extent to which Reform can split the right in a Scottish Parliament election, potentially reducing the Scottish Conservatives to 18 MSPs from the current 31 if there was a vote now. Whether that would be borne out in the heat of a proper campaign is questionable, given the paucity of Reform’s Scottish leadership, but it also shows that if enough people are swayed by an avowedly UK party led by Nigel Farage on Zoom to return eight MSPs, it should put to rest the notion of the Scottish Conservatives severing links with the UK party, or wasting time arguing about internal structures.

Having been unsure about who to support, the past fortnight’s shenanigans persuaded me to nominate Russell Findlay, but he still has work to do over the remainder of the campaign to press home his vision of what his Scottish Conservatives would stand for, which will bring back those Reform UK defectors but not lose the centre ground. It’s no easy task, but he was quick out the blocks with an article in yesterday’s Daily Mail aimed at Reformites, in which he referred to a “hand up, not a handout” but the challenge is to spell out what this means.

Gravy train nation

All three candidates are talking about low tax but, as Brian Monteith wrote on these pages yesterday, how it can be done is more important, with an honesty able to stand up to scrutiny during an election campaign. Mr Fraser’s call for Scotland to cut income tax to below the UK level is good, and over time would attract more higher earners. But without balancing cuts in the immediate instance, it would create a problem, as the SNP is discovering as they desperately look for ways to save money but not trash everything they’ve done over the past 17 years.

They have built a hand-out culture, a gravy train nation where more is expected for free, in the belief that higher taxes will cover it, or that imminent independence would allow them to borrow their way out of trouble. One way or another, the unpalatable choices they’re facing were inevitable, and who’d have thought just two years ago that actors would be protesting on stage about arts funding on the last weekend of the Edinburgh Festival?

Scottish Conservatives are used to opposition from luvvies, so the leadership hopefuls should have no fear about outlining how the low tax, small government state based on personal responsibility of which they all speak can be built. All three principles require doing less, and spelling out what goes will define the Conservative alternative more clearly than spending pledges like building more jails.

The problem with ‘relative poverty’

Ironically, a pointer came from former Labour minister Des McNulty in a paper for Reform Scotland this week arguing the Scottish Child Payment, the SNP’s flagship policy, was not enough to tackle poverty. Of course, he didn’t advocate its abolition but he did point out the difference between relative and absolute poverty, which gets deliberately lost in the propaganda behind what has become a poverty industry with little focus on outcomes.

Relying on relative poverty as the marker actually makes it more difficult to tackle destitution, said Mr McNulty. The reality in a growing economy is there will always be relative poverty so trying to eradicate it though welfare payments is a route to bankruptcy, and simultaneously increasing welfare while raising taxes to pay for it might notionally tackle inequality but wreck the competitive economy.

Therefore, reining in welfare hand-outs must be part of the plan. If free prescriptions stay, make it for prescription-only medicine, not paracetamol and aspirin. If free university tuition remains, it should be means-tested and numbers capped with the alternative of free technical college diploma courses. The list goes on.

The challenge for the next Scottish Conservative leader is to offer voters a proper alternative. Being alternative Lib Dems simply won’t cut it.