Keir Hardie

My pre-Christmas reading is Bob Holman's sympathetic study of Kier Hardie. Appropriate reading for Christmas as Hardie was a Christian Socialist, something Holman emphasises in a way Caroline Benn's exhaustive study doesn't. Not that Hardie wasn't contemptuous of the hypocrisy of the wealthy Christians of his day.

There is much in Kier Hardie's life that resonates today and I will select a few random examples.

With the weather I have had to issue plenty of guidance on the employment issues to UNISON branches. Hardie tells the story of his first job at the age of eight delivering bread rolls for a high class bakers, because his family was ill and his the only family income. When he was late twice in bad weather he was summoned to the master's dining room (after prayers because the master was noted for his piety)  and dismissed.  The master said "to make you more careful in future, I have decided to fine you a week's wages. And now you may go!"

This and other childhood experiences clearly had a strong influence on his political and religious views. Later as an MP he constantly criticised the continuance of poverty and inequality and, with other Labour MPs, was the driving force behind changing the Liberal Party's position on state welfare. He pointed out that charities came and went, were strong in some areas and weak in others. Something we should remember today in the context of the so called 'Big Society' reforms. 

When Hardie opposed a large pension for a Boer War commander and asked what was available for private soldiers coming back wounded. Tory MPs shouted back "The Workhouse". When we saw Tory MPs last October slapping each other on the back as the poorest in our society had their benefits slashed, you can see that Tory values haven't changed much.

Having said that, Hardy would have been pretty damming of some aspects of the Labour Party today. He frequently warned of 'the dangers' of the Commons and the importance of Labour MPs being able, from their experience, to have empathy for working class people. He would not have been impressed with the trend towards professional politicians who have little experience of working life.

Keir Hardie was a conviction politician, maybe inflexible at times, but his thinking on issues like womens rights and the environment were well ahead of his time. History has proved him right. We should acknowledge our debt to him and his ideas that remain relevant today. The recently formed Kier Hardie Society is one way of doing that and you can join by contacting Richard Leonard at GMB Scotland. Richard recently showed me round the Hardie Room at the Baird Institute in Cumnock, the town where Hardie lived most of his life and many of his papers are kept in the Institute.

If you are looking for something to spend you Xmas book voucher on, I would strongly recommend Bob Holman's book. As the President of The Kier Hardie Society, Tony Benn said, "A wonderful introduction to Labour's first and in many ways, greatest leader."

Protection of Workers Bill

SNP, Tory and Liberal MSPs yesterday, sadly but predictably, turned their collective backs on violence at work and voted down the Protection of Workers Bill. Lots of apparent concern about the issue, but no action.

At least the Tories have been consistent opponents of this legislative approach. It fits in well with their Westminster colleagues who are devastating the Heath & Safety Executive with 35% cuts and undermining safety at work through the Young Report. At least 20,000 workers die every year in the UK as a consequence of work, but safety is not to be taken seriously by them.

The Liberals used to support this approach but have now decided to follow their UK Tory coalition partners on this as with other matters. If you read some of their replies to constituents, you would be surprised that they actually voted against. But as recent revelations in the Telegraph have shown, they share that approach in common with their Westminster colleagues.

The SNP also used to support this approach, in fact they had a manifesto commitment to extend the EWA. However, they have been unwilling to extend this coverage to other workers, many of whom suffer far greater levels of violence at work. The honourable exception are those SNP backbenchers who allowed the Bill to proceed, mostly from a trade union background, who obviously have a better understanding of workplace realities.

Overall we got much more rhetoric yesterday from a majority of MSPs. What the thousands of workers who daily face violence at work are looking for is action.

Scottish Futures Trust

The Scottish Futures Trust has sneaked out its annual report just before Christmas. When you read it, you can hardly blame them!

The headline is that it spent £3.3m last year including more than £1m on consultants and external staff. We were told that the justification for the fabulous salaries for its leading officials, was their private sector expertise that we apparently need so badly. This includes £174,000 for the Chief Executive (part-year only), more than the Chief Executive of Scotland's largest local authority.

As Bill Butler MSP said today:
"These figures will do little to increase public confidence in this increasingly discredited quango. Instead, they have seen the SFT pay out over £2,000 a day on consultants over the past 12 months, and today's figures prove that the gravy train keeps on rolling."

There might be something to say if they actually came up with something new. Instead the Scottish Government, on the advice of the SFT, are returning to the discredited PFI model. Of course if you employ a former PFI consultant, you shouldn't be surprised if you get a one trick donkey.

Protection of Workers Bill

The Protection of Workers (S) Bill is to be debated in the Scottish Parliament tomorrow at Stage 1.

The Economy Energy and Tourism Committee is recommending that Parliament should oppose the Bill, claiming it would not extend the protection currently available to workers under the common law. But, as the committee recognised, there is no statistical evidence that this approach works. UNISON believes incidents involving uniformed staff may be taken more seriously than the lower level – but just as traumatic – incidents which involve thousands of our members and fall below the radar of current criminal law provisions.

Each year, thousands of dedicated staff providing vital services in our communities are being assaulted at work. Nearly 30,000 last year alone, and they are only the recorded incidents in the public sector. While legislation on its own is not enough, it is part of the solution and sends a clear message that violence against workers is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our society.

These workers deserve stronger legal protection and better protective measures and MSPs should not turn their backs on these staff. If you want to support the Bill you can send a message to your MSP through our website. 600 people have done that today alone. Well done and thanks for your support.

Fair taxes

The Sunday Herald asked me to write a comment piece on taxation for today's paper. Taxation is a subject that politicians hate to talk about. However, in the current financial crisis we need to have a grown up debate about the relationship between quality public services and the tax needed to finance them.

And not just any old tax. Examples of fair taxation include:

£4.7bn could be raised every year by introducing a 50% tax rate on incomes over £100,000.

£14.9bn could be raised every year by using minimum tax rates to stop reliefs being used to disproportionately subsidise incomes over £100,000.


£20-30bn could be raised every year by introducing a Major Financial Transactions Tax (or "Robin Hood Tax‟) on UK financial institutions.
 
Fair taxation also has a redistributive impact, creating a more equal society. As we know from the work by Wilkinson and others - more equal societies do better in almost every way.

Scotland Bill and bonds

Parliamentary scrutiny of the Scotland Bill has started with the unusual sight of a UK Treasury minister appearing before a committee of the Scottish Parliament.

One of the important gaps in the Bill is a provision that debars the Scottish Government from issuing bonds. David Gauke MP told MSPs that Holyrood could not be given the same power as local authorities to issue investment bonds because such a move could damage the UK’s credit rating.

Scottish Labour MSP Peter Peacock asked why Holyrood should be denied the right to issue bonds to fund capital projects. Mr Gauke replied: “We have a concern that if the Scottish Government was also able to issue bonds there is a risk of confusion in the gilts market. We don’t want to create any uncertainty that may damage the UK’s position."

This is clearly absurd as local authorities already have these powers and no one has suggested that these damage the UK's credit rating. Brian Adam MSP probably got closer to the truth when he said “Is stability just another word for Treasury control? Isn’t it the truth that the Treasury have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to allow devolution of any of these financial powers?”

This is an important issue on the day the Scottish Government published its consultation paper on Scottish Water. 'Building a Hydro Nation' sets out an ambitious vision for developing the role of Scottish Water and bonds would be one way of financing it. Given that the Scottish Conservatives and Liberal Democrats take every opportunity to undermine our public water service, I do wonder if there is any link to the UK Con-Dem minister's position on this?

Health spending

Interesting report from Audit Scotland today giving a financial overview of NHS Scotland. The NHS in Scotland spent £10.9bn last year, one third of the total Scottish budget and employs 160,000 people.

Whilst the NHS has a degree of protection from next year's spending cuts, this report confirms our analysis that the NHS is not exempt from cuts. Funding is at best at a standstill while demand and cost pressures continue to rise. As a consequence services will have to be cut or the NHS will have to exceed its so called 'efficiency' targets - in effect the same thing.

Some health boards are already balancing their budgets by using non-recurring income to meet recurring expenditure. Not a sustainable medium term financial strategy for any organisation. Boards are planning to make savings totalling £274m this year, that's £72m (36%) more than last year. With capital spending going down the prospects for savings from service redesign will be constrained.

The increasing demands and cost pressures come from:

• Increasing elderly population leading to more long term conditions, GP visits and pressure on acute beds.
• Drug costs rising above inflation. Estimates vary from 4% to 11%
• Whilst a pay freeze will reduce some staff costs the consultant and GMS contract continues to exceed allocations. Locum doctor costs have doubled since 1997.
• The VAT increase from January will cost NHS Scotland an additional £23.3m.
• PFI contracts are a fixed cost that don't reflect funding changes. They already cost £136m per year and the Scottish Government has announced a return to this wasteful method of funding.
• Universal service provisions including free prescriptions, personal and nursing care and eye tests have rising demand costs.

Sadly, as is usual with Audit Scotland, some of their recommendations offer more of the failed top down approaches. More information should be collected, better productivity measures, shared services, leadership etc. No recognition is given to the service redesign initiatives that come from the bottom up using systems thinking principles. These are particularly effective in the NHS with its partnership industrial relations model and commitment to no compulsory redundancy. The report implicitly criticises this commitment without recognising that it is the framework that allows innovative solutions to come from staff who best understand the service.