Scottish common sense: championing opportunity over “equality”

THE CHALLENGE facing anyone seeking reform in Scotland cannot be underestimated. That’s odd; those claiming to be on the side of Scottish common sense, plain-speaking and opportunity are up against a cabal of controlling socialists who campaign on the basis of imposing central planning, unicorn economics and identitarian slogans.

One might think the former would easily defeat the latter, but we should not underestimate the power within Scottish minds of the ethics of “fairness and equality” and “social justice” being used as a weapon. The potential for inducing dissonance between a call to self-reliance and growth-centric liberalism, which now seems embedded in Reform’s messaging, and a loud excoriating critique from the left that lambasts anyone with classical liberal tendencies as “far right” is huge.

It’s quite easy in politics to imprint undeserved disreputability onto your opponents when you have purported kindness, compassion and a dream of fairness and equality imprinted within your electoral constituency.

As Reform tries to engineer its position in Scotland’s political theatre, this oddity of our native common sense versus the slogans of leftist social utopianism is in full play. Scots have past form in supporting socialism as progressive and indeed have a stout strand of communistic thinking.

Yet, for classical liberals who also have form in Scotland’s past as progressives championing wealth creation and personal liberty, and who are non-Tory, this is where things have gone wrong for Scotland’s progress. Labour, the SNP, and the Tories, have all built a strong central state apparatus – something which has failed wherever it has been tried worldwide.

Reform should appeal to the common sense, plain-speaking Scot

But for Reform in Scotland, when it comes to policy proposals, it will not be useful simply to counter-sloganize with liberal free market capitalism. In the same way that “fairness and equality” and “social justice” are slogans, there would be no perception of content in that offer – few people understand what it means.

Classical liberalism is to most people esoteric, stratospheric thinking. I am reminded of an evening that I wore an Adam Smith tie to dinner at Crieff Hydro, bearing his image in profile that is immediately recognisable to classical liberals. I was challenged to see how many folks in a dining room of around a hundred people, nearly all Scots that week, would know who he was – one of Scotland’s most famous intellectuals. The answer … was none.

This could be adopted as an advantage for Reform. The party objective is just that – reform – so there is no need to introduce a lot of baggage in its public messaging. Instead it should appeal to the common sense, plain-speaking Scot. A key challenge, in my view, will be to ignore the left totally, – both its fetish for a Neverendum and its framing of debate – and to respond to its failures not with churlish criticism but with positive alternatives. This does not mean that basic values and ideas should not be proclaimed, but there should, I think, be a strong emphasis on what a reforming government would actually do instead.

If the idea of Scotland is that it’s a place where fairness and equality is triumphant (a slogan that actually means favouring some people prejudicially as more deserving than others, and imposing equalisation that is unfair to almost everyone), then announcing policies that increase access to good housing, schools that increase the achievements of all children, and opportunities that lift all boats into easier lives with better jobs and more money is the flavour for the future that has to be offered.

Scots voters know that the SNP is failing, and that Labour is equally hopeless; they can see it in the streets just as the thirty per cent of English voters can when they look at how the central state has failed to produce better outcomes for all – in reality, actually creating unfairness and inequality.

a brand personality for Reform that is both pragmatic and a call to arms for all Scots

Malcolm Offord has indicated that none of this can be done fast; the SNPs tenure has created a lot of ruin. However, that does not mean that clear policy objectives based on common sense values cannot be stated again and again.

Ideally, a brand personality for Reform has to be built that is both pragmatic and a call to arms for all Scots: come on Scotland, let’s find a way together to sort things out as doers not takers. So …

If we want reform to induce good housing, get the local authorities out of it, introduce shared co-operatives as the Dutch do, re-allow council house sales, and allow local people to work with private capital – knock old housing down and build anew. Use local voting initiatives to clear out obstructive planners who want to control development. Push controlling socialism aside; it’s only common sense to have a warm home in Scotland.

If we want schools that produce high achieving children, introduce plurality to maximise parental choice and give schools control of their own capital budgets. Minimise the mandatory curriculum (indeed, abolish it), and de-nationalise all the quangos and standards bodies so that they are commissioned by schools and not feared by de-professionalised teachers. It’s only common sense that parents and teachers can work out what is best for their children.

Maximise opportunities that lift all boats by starting with the young. Use what income tax powers exist to free them up to be eagerly employed, learn more skills and so earn more money. It’s only common sense that young people soak up knowledge like a sponge and make good use of it for all of us through their energy.

Don’t make living on welfare easy, or acceptable. The easiest life is a busy life – one in which times get a lot better when you are in control of your future and your income is steadily rising. It’s only common sense that dependency is a gradual destruction mechanism for the human soul. Don’t promote dependency – ever – only use support to provide a ladder to self-reliance.

Do everything to lower the overheads of enterprising people. Remember 99 per cent of all businesses are tiny in Scotland; energy costs, utilities and silly regulations hurt their eagerness to make money. In a small country with small towns, leaving entrepreneurial people to make hay is only common sense.

Stress the dynamic. Scotland, you can do it. With freedom to act, a few micro-businesses will become SMEs, and some SMEs will become small, well-invested corporates. An emerging critical mass of industrial and commercial activities will provide better jobs, and more money will appear. Enterprise generates enterprise.

The stress should be on opportunities, not on equality. Arguing with socialists about equality is pointless; it’s a religious slogan for them. In reality, nobody can define what it means in reference to any one individual – and if it is not about individuals, then what is called “fairness and equality” actually means prejudicial equalisation using the coercive state.

Scots do not want that; their fairness and equality is an old common-sense sentiment of “hail fellow, well met”. Scots generally want the best from each other within an ethic of personal liberty coming first before imposed social justice. We carry much less class baggage than in the English cultural experience. We want to be free – and reforming measures should emphasise liberty as the driver of social justice through opportunity.