WAG THE DOG
When the Poverty Alliance, Child Poverty Action Group and Joseph Rowntree Foundation are all criticising the SNP government, you know they'll be wheeling out the constitutional distraction
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Scotland is facing a cost of living crisis where families struggle with rising energy bills, spiralling inflation coupled with falling take-home wages is squeezing many Scots. Ofgem has warned consumers of prepayment meters they can expect bills to soar by £708 to £2,017. This comes as the regulator hiked the price cap to £1,971, meaning the cost of gas and energy will rise by more than 50%1
And it is not just energy bills rocketing up. The Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero has admitted your water bill from Scottish Water (publicly owned) will rise 4.2% as well. The Cabinet Secretary explained,
“We remain committed to supporting people facing issues paying their water bills. While UK-wide energy prices rise beyond inflation, in Scotland the increase to water charges for 2022-23 has been set at 4.2% - in line with inflation.”2
Furthermore, this is all coming on top of an already existing cost of living crisis the SNP has presided over since 2020.
Remember that Citizens Advice Scotland revealed two years ago that “a third of Scots are worried they may not be able to meet the costs of food and other essentials”3. Devastatingly, throughout 2020 a third of Scots (34%) were concerned about their ability to pay for food and essentials. So this new cost of living crisis is hitting home despite already rising food insecurity under the SNP.
In the face of this unprecedented cost of living crisis, where many thousands will be pushed into fuel poverty, we need grown up and mature government in Holyrood. We need bold policy action, driven analysis and clear headed thinking.
Sadly however we have Kate Forbes as Finance Secretary. Her initial response has been - and I wish I were making this up - to blame Westminster.
The issue arises from the UK government announcing last week that an additional £290m would be going to Scotland as the result of Barnett consequentials4. These derive from the £150 cut to council tax bands A to D announced for England by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last week as part of his efforts to tackle the cost of living crisis.
It has been made clear by Westminster that this would be on top of a £200 reduction on energy bills for customers in England, Scotland and Wales in October, which will be repaid at £40 a year over five years from April 2023.
And although Nicola Sturgeon welcomed this news from London, Kate Forbes made a tweet insinuating that there would be no additional money for Scotland as a result of the council tax cut in England. Naturally this is not true, but Ms Forbes is the sort of finance secretary who likes to pretend the Scottish deficit of over 22% doesn’t exist5, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised?
But why insist on pretending the UK government is somehow short changing Scotland amid a cost of living crisis? Well SNP MP Tommy Shepperd gives the game away with his reply to Ms Forbes tweet
Amid an energy price spike where households could see their energy costs rise by more than 50%, SNP politicians are using the crisis to engineer petty constitutional games. This is surely yet another example of why nationalists cannot be the social democrats they claim to be.
Meanwhile, as the SNP play petty constitutional games, leading charities across Scotland are uniting to condemn the inadequacy of the SNP governments overall response.
Poverty Alliance Peter Kelly described the SNP’s announcement of giving £150 to households living in bands A-D as “deeply disappointing”6. His position was reinforced by Chris Birt of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Mr Birt said of the SNP government approach
“By largely copying the approach of the Chancellor, the Scottish Government has repeated his mistakes and provided cold comfort for families on low incomes in Scotland.”7
So, far from ‘standing up for Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon’s government is simply cut-and-pasting Rishi Sunak’s solutions from down in Westminster. Solutions that key anti-poverty charities are describing as insufficient. But I suppose the SNP are hoping that their fake claims about Westminster somehow short-changing Scotland regarding Barnett consequentials will hide the inadequacy of their response.
Peter Kelly of Poverty Alliance underscores the fact that despite what they are claiming, the SNP are literally doing the exact same thing as the Westminster government
“People across Scotland are feeling the grip of poverty tighten on their lives, as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite. So it was deeply disappointing that Kate Forbes' announcement today mirrored the UK Government's misguided approach to the cost-of-living crisis.”8
When the Poverty Alliance, the Child Poverty Action Group and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation are all criticising the SNP/‘Green’ plan to ease the cost of living crisis, you know there is a problem. And so does Kate Forbes.
That is why Kate Forbes tweets out the lie that there would be no additional money for Scotland as a result of the council tax cut in England; she is just playing a game. It’s as I wrote about previously concerning silence and denial in politics - this is wag the dog distraction politics. The SNP are seeking to have a less important constitutional issue dominate a conversation about the inadequacy of their response to the cost of living crisis. They already have sufficient powers to be much more radical than they are being on policy. This is wag the dog politics.
The SNP want people to argue that Westminster is short changing Scotland, rather than argue about the deep inadequacy of the SNP’s response. ‘Standing up for Scotland’ by mimicking insufficient Westminster policies? Aye, sure. And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.
It’s almost as if Scotland could do better than either of the government’s we’re currently lumbered with, either in Holyrood or Westminster.
Pease, Victoria (2022, February 3) “New energy price cap sees bills set to rise by almost £700 a year”, STV, https://news.stv.tv/scotland/new-energy-price-cap-sees-bills-set-to-rise-by-almost-700-a-year
Hutcheon, Paul, (2022, February 4), “Water bills in Scotland to rise as cost of living crisis escalates”, Daily Record, https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/water-bills-scotland-rise-cost-26137819
Jones, Gareth (2020, April 9) “Scotland faces cost of living crisis”, ‘TFN: voice of Scotland’s vibrant voluntary sector’, https://tfn.scot/news/scotland-faces-cost-of-living-crisis
“Scottish cost-of-living help to be announced” (2022, February 10) BBC News, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-60324917
Bradley, Jane (2021, November 26), “Budget: Kate Forbes under fire after insisting Scotland has no financial deficit”, The Scotsman, https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/budget-kate-forbes-under-fire-after-insisting-scotland-has-no-financial-deficit-3472671
Hutcheon, Paul (2022, February 10), “Charities criticise SNP/Green Government plan to ease cost of living crisis”, Daily Record, https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/anti-poverty-charity-criticises-snpgreen-26197032?1=
Ibid
Ibid