Rauma, Finland – on the Gulf of Bothnia, across the water from Sweden.
After a long day, my thoughts turned to my recent debate in Westminster and a vote a very long time ago, when I was the youngest member of Ross & Cromarty District Council in the Highlands.
It was a vote I won – which led me to be appointed as the Council’s representative on the Scottish Constitutional Convention. This body was established in 1988 to work towards the establishment of a devolved Scottish Parliament. Little did I realise that singular vote would set me on a road that would change the rest of my life.
Fast forward to 1989 and I had signed the Claim of Right for Scotland. Eight years later, the Labour Party won the 1997 General Election – and one year after that, legislated for a devolved Scottish Parliament. I myself was subsequently elected to be the first member of the Scottish Parliament for the Far North since 1707. It remains today, one of my proudest achievements.
After twelve years, I stood down from the Scottish Parliament. That would’ve been the end of the story had Theresa May not called a snap Westminster election in 2017. My name proudly went on the ballot paper – albeit with a humbling assurance that I was highly unlikely to be elected. How wrong we were… Since that date, I have been an MP representing approximately the same area that I had previously represented in Holyrood.
At this point history might rest, if it wasn’t for the recent debate on Scottish devolution, held in my name in the House of Commons Chamber last week. Revising the past, some might say.
Why did I apply to have this debate last week? Because I – and many others – felt that our expectations for devolution and home rule in Edinburgh to improve the lives of Scots, hasn’t turned out quite the way we envisioned. During the debate – which I might add attracted a gratifyingly large number of MPs – I pointed out that I led this debate today as someone who believes in the strength of our family of nations – that we can make people’s lives better through cooperation and partnership. I have never worked against the system of devolution, but I do believe it can be made more sustainable.
The trouble is, people in Scotland are dismayed and rightly so. They see their household bills soaring, long waits for the GP, the ferry fiasco, and a Scottish education system that just isn’t what it used to be. Scotland deserves better, and our governments need to show people that they can respond to the challenges at hand, and that it can change people’s lives for the better. Scotland needs governments in Edinburgh and London that are capable of working together, and for them to be capable of ironing out differences of opinion where they exist maturely, within proper frameworks, and without always resorting to legal action and court battles.
We have a Scottish Parliament election in just a few months time. Once it is over, I think we all express the hope that the new balance of power between parties in Holyrood might start to do things differently for the things the Scottish people need.
The reason that I write these words, sitting in Rauma, Finland, is that the reason I am in this very special country is that I and other MPs have been seeing how nuclear energy is managed here. Finland roughly has the same population as Scotland – and I believe Scotland has a lot to learn from the way nuclear energy provides roughly 39% of Finland’s electricity and stabilises energy prices nationally.
Up until now, the Scottish government has refused to countenance any new nuclear power in Scotland, using their devolved planning powers to block the current UK Government’s plans to expand the industry for long term sustainability. And yet, an ever-growing number of people all over the country have come to agree that nuclear power is the way forward. In my own constituency of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, we have a licensed site at Dounreay and a supportive local population.
From my perspective, this appears to be the perfect example of a devolved system of multi-level governance in which party politics is incentivising our governments to work against one another, instead of together. And all to the detriment of the people whose lives these choices impact.
It appears that for too long we have been preoccupied with internal fighting. So much so that we are losing sight of the big things that really matter. Referring back to the question of nuclear energy. If we can’t reach an agreement on basic energy infrastructure, then what are we to do? Rely on Russian gas? I need to say no more.
To put it simply, we need to come together now to better understand how to make our union more workable and acknowledge what needs to change for the sake of everyone who lives here, before it is too late.
