THE MENDACITY OF BEING A FABULIST
You should ignore the First Minister's attempts to blame London for child poverty
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SPEECH is a powerful tool, it has the ability to motivate, instigate and energize others. The greatest literary giants use the power of speechmaking for their protagonists to inspire others to heroic acts of resistance against the odds. One obvious example is Shakespeare’s Henry V. We see a portrait revealing a young King urging his poor harried English longbowmen, knights and peasants to overcome the odds with his St. Crispin’s Day speech. As the battle of Agincourt loomed large, and the English faced the overmighty and massive French royal army, Shakespeare’s Henry inspires,
“Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day”-From Henry V, Act IV, Scene III
LANGUAGE is a powerful weapon in the hands of leaders, politicians, writers and historians. It can contextualise any given issue through a mixture of charm, insinuation and implied meanings. But this is also why so many become easily disillusioned with modern politics. With the rise of mass communication, instant replay and everything being so speedily fact-checkable, we know better now that ever when we’re being misled or lied to. The internet in many respects has altered the whole game.
So it is with all this in mind I come to our First Minister. A speech before a Holyrood committee recently caught my eye, and her use of language captures a particular mendacity and shamelessness.
Discussing child poverty - which is one of her administrations Achille’s heels - she attempted to pass the buck of responsibility onto London.
“When we have a situation just now, where we are doubling the Scottish Child Payment, to try to try to help us meet the child poverty targets, but the government in London is taking away with the other hand money from the very families we’re trying to help, then that makes no sense. In that it makes it more difficult to do the right thing.” - Nicola Sturgeon
Now that clip is only 40 seconds long, but it is incredibly revealing.
First thing to establish is some context, in this case relative child poverty has risen from 23% in 2007/8 to 26% 2019/201. This is illustrated below with figure 1. Such a rise in the numbers of children living in households which have low income comparative to the rest of society, occurred entirely under the Scottish National Party’s time in office. The SNP first came to power after winning the May 2007 Holyrood election.
This all being the case, it is not surprising that the First Minister would wish to try to spread the responsibility around for this shocking situation. The increase in the number of kids living in households blighted by relative poverty all happened prior to the pandemic too, so you can bet the situation has grown worse since then.
So, back to the First Minister. Her gambit to blame London for all of this is objectively untrue. Nicola Sturgeon’s gambit consisted of three prongs,
We can’t be as generous as we would like to be because of Westminster
The Scottish Government is powerless to resolve London’s alleged reductions in welfare spending
What will resolve everything is independence
Observing Nicola Sturgeon deploying these three arguments strikes me as mendacious. It is staggeringly misleading and untrue, and almost has a fairy-tale quality to it.
Firstly, it is simply completely untrue to argue that the Scottish Government cannot be as generous as it likes regarding social security spending. As is made clear in the Scottish Fiscal Commission report, Ms Sturgeon’s government can and is being as generous as it cares to be,
“The Scottish Government has introduced significant reforms of devolved social security. Existing payments administered by DWP on behalf of the Scottish Government are being replaced by new Scottish payments administered by Social Security Scotland. As well as reforming the administration of these payments with an ambition to improve take-up of payments, the Scottish Government has, for many payments, expanded the number of people eligible and increased payment amounts. The largest payment, Adult Disability Payment, launches in 2022. The Scottish Government has also introduced new uniquely Scottish payments, most notably the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) which has been increased in this Budget.”2
Simply put, the Scottish Government (ScotGov) is replacing UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) social security payments with that of its own in many areas. One of these is Scottish Child Benefit that the First Minister mentions. Furthermore, she can spend as much over and above DWP planned amounts as she wishes. And she has been, see the bit which read “As well as reforming the administration of these payments with an ambition to improve take-up of payments, the Scottish Government has, for many payments, expanded the number of people eligible and increased payment amounts”
This alone demonstrates that it is untrue to argue that Westminster prevents Holyrood from being as generous as it wishes to be regarding social security spending. ScotGov can and is expanding eligibility to social security payments, unilaterally and without needing permission from London. Nothing prevents Nicola Sturgeon from doing this.
But also worth noting are the twin facts that by 2026/27 approximately 73% of all Scottish social security spending will be resultant from Scottish Government (as opposed to Westminster) spending; as figure 2 demonstrates below. Plus the Scottish Fiscal Commission notes that it expects
“that by 2026-27 spending on the Scottish Government’s social security benefits will be £760 million more than the corresponding funding received,”3
Now if ScotGov can expand eligibility, create its own new benefits and plan to spend more than the DWP derived block grant adjustment (BGA), under no circumstances can Nicola Sturgeon possibly claim Scotland can’t be as generous as it would like regarding child poverty welfare spending. Nor can it be reasonably claimed ScotGov is somehow powerless to resolve or offset Westminster welfare spending reductions. Fact is ScotGov can, and is doing more than merely offsetting - but actually planning to spend £760m more than the DWP derived BGA.
This brings us to her last mendacious claim, that somehow independence would resolve all matters. While it is true that going independent would end the possibility of conflicts of policy between our two governments, it would create huge new problems.
Scotland - despite already taxing its wealthiest more than England does - has a projected income tax shortfall by 2026/7 of a whopping -£417m4. Just look at figure 3, again taken from the Scottish Fiscal Commission report,
So the First Minister is arguing that it makes sense to ‘go independent’ to resolve child poverty. All at the same time as Scotland faces social security spending over and above the BGA of +£760m, whilst wrestling with an income tax shortfall of -£417m; all in the overall context of a deficit above 22% GDP5.
If you think any of that would make it easier as a Scottish nation to resolve the blight of child poverty, then I have a bridge to sell you. Just send me a cheque made out to C.A.S.H, and you can own it within the day.
Language can be used to inspire, or it can be used to mislead. Fact: child poverty rose on her watch. Fact: ScotGov is responsible for the failure. Fact: it is dishonest to seek to blame Westminster for it on the grounds the First Minister seeks to do.
Sadly, Nicola Sturgeon seems to specialise in being a fabulist. A composer of tall tales at odds with objective reality. And we are all the poorer for it, well, perhaps the children more.
Scottish Government (2021, March 25), ‘Child poverty summary’, https://data.gov.scot/poverty/cpupdate.html
Scottish Fiscal Commission, (2021, December 9), ‘Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts – Summary’, pg. 10-11, https://www.fiscalcommission.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Scotland_s-Economic-and-Fiscal-Forecasts-December-2021-Summary.pdf
Ibid, pg 12
Ibid, pg 3
Scottish Government (2021, August 18), ‘Government Expenditure & Revenue Scotland 2020-21’, https://www.gov.scot/news/government-expenditure-revenue-scotland-2020-21/#:~:text=Net%20Fiscal%20Balance%202020%2D21&text=Excluding%20North%20Sea%20revenue%2C%20was,GDP%20(%C2%A336.9%20billion).