"Stop the right-wing drift of the SNP", says radical speaker
UP to 100 people turned out in Inverness last night to hear a left-wing central-belt author talk-up the benefits of Scottish independence.
Robin McAlpine, former political lobbyist turned radical thinker, said the country could be transformed into a leftist’s utopia.
But he questioned whether the SNP, which usually paints itself as economically well to the Left of the Labour Party, was the right party to lead.
"It’s touch-and-go," he said. "If the members of the SNP can take their party back from the managers in pinstripe suits who control it at the centre, it might just be possible."
Inverness Central SNP councillor, Richard Laird, who was among the audience, said the SNP would bring a political alternative to Scotland.
"It’s the only credible party which is able to present the socially democratic policies which most Scots aspire to," he added.
But in a separate interview yesterday, the country’s Secretary of State Alistair Carmichael, said the staying with the UK was the best option.
"My children are growing up in a world which is increasingly globalized," he said. "It is a world where trade markets are getting bigger, not smaller, and in that sort of world there’s a benefit to my children remaining part of the UK, part of one of the big powers in the United Nations."
The left-wing lecture, hosted by Highlands and Islands MSP John Finnie, was held at the Beaufort Hotel in Culduthel. The Inverness band Dorec-a-belle performed for the audience.
Mr McAlpine was setting out his new left-wing philosophy called the Common Weal, named after an old Scots phrase meaning wealth shared in common and for the well-being of all.
The public affairs manager for Universities Scotland, who worked in journalism before serving as press officer to the then Labour party chairman George Robertson, said swelling the grass-roots Common Weal movement would create a body too big for Scotland’s government to ignore.
Appealing for donations of £5 per month from prospective members, he said: "The first thing we want to have is proper local government. We live in the least democratic country in the developed world, and not by a little bit. The area covered by Highland Council is bigger than Belgium. How is that local?"
Championing the Norwegian-model, where welfare services are run by the local public sector, he said: "In Norway, the tier that we know as community council carries the policy and budget responsibilities for their local hospital. Can you imagine that?"
He went on: "In my wee town we’ve got a wee cottage hospital and the powers that be in Hamilton decided that it is not working efficiently so there’s no way they can keep that open. Well, I say to hell with efficiency. If my daughter gets burnt on a Saturday afternoon I want an inefficient hospital that’s open. That’s my decision. I’m paying for it and so are the other people in my community, so why can’t we have it?"
Setting up citizen juries, bodies made up of people from all walks of life to hear evidence from government experts and weigh their logical arguments against the sensitive needs of local communities, could solve the problem, he said.
"The citizen juries could make recommendations to the government, which may or may not be upheld, but at least we would start to see decisions being made in this country that look like our own."
A high-skilled, high-wage economy, a 30-hour working week, an expanded welfare state with universal public services and an expansion in affordable housing, are also on the wish list.
Raising the 40p income tax rate to 50p, and the 45p rate for those earning more than £150,000 to 60p while imposing higher taxes on land, industry, retailers and whisky production, also feature high up in the priorities.
The philosophy is published in a book called Common Weal.
