Welsh Labour can call out their UK boss. Why can't Scottish Labour?

The National

17 hours ago

Some people might be tempted to think this is proof positive that devolution works; that there is no need for Scotland to follow ­slavishly in English and Welsh footsteps. They could not be more wrong.
The truth of the matter is that ­taking a ­different path from our southern ­neighbours is a costly business. ­According to Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Social Justice Secretary, we spent a not-so-small fortune last year trying to stop Westminster policies affecting Scots voters.
Mitigating the iniquitous bedroom tax cost us a kick in the pants off £75 ­million, while ignoring the benefit cap rushed us another £7.8m with even more spent ­ameliorating hardship payments in ­housing. A grand total of more than £90m annually.
READ MORE: Pat Kane: Scotland is heading back into a cycle of 'extraction without consent'
All of which has to be found from an ­annual grant which also restricts our ­ability to borrow and expressly forbids ­bursting our budget. These are the ­penalties of ­proffering a begging bowl rather than ­demanding independence of thought and making our own fiscal rules.
Not so much an indication that devolution works, but evidence in scarce cash of how demanding it has become to do our own thing.
We're not alone. The Welsh First ­Minister made a speech last month which emphasised what she called the 'Red Welsh Way'. The kind of speech Labour voters in Scotland never hear from Anas Sarwar; a speech making it clear that Wales needs and enjoys a seat at the top table.
Eluned Morgan told her troops at ­Labour's Welsh conference: 'Here in Wales, we don't follow the crowd. We lead in our own way – shaped by our Welsh ­values, our people and our priorities. The Red Welsh Way … proudly distinct, rooted in justice.'
Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Eluned MorganShe was careful, of course, to talk up the partnership with Keir Starmer and endorse devolution, but left little doubt that where London and Cardiff differed, she would encourage Wales to go its own way. It went down rather well.
Given that eradicating child poverty is a stated aim of both the Scottish and ­Westminster governments, it's instructive to note that only in Scotland do we have the child support payment, widely ­regarded as a major source of poverty ­relief for hard-pressed families, while the hated two-child cap on benefits – and the associated rape clause – will go in ­Scotland from early March next year, while ­Westminster continues to prevaricate and dither.
Already there are dark hints that ­scrapping the two-child cap will be among the collateral damage of the ­recent Commons rebellion if Rachel Reeves ­continues to play hardball.
Here in Scotland, it will mean that families already in receipt of universal benefits will be able to access monthly payments matching the Universal Credit child element: £292.81 per eligible child.
READ MORE: Poverty levels in Scotland below UK for 20 years, graphs show
Now that we have our own Social ­Security agency, you might think this ­offers a layer of protection. It has meant we no longer use Pip or personal ­independence payments. Instead, we use Adult Disability Payments, which means that any alteration in the Commons won't apply here.
Unalloyed good news you might think, except that the London-based ­Department of Work and Pensions still operates ­Universal Credit payments. Any alteration to them will inevitably impact on the Barnett formula, which is used to calculate the block grant to Scotland. Or, as I prefer to think of it, Scotland's pocket money.
Just the same, we do now have a range of payments which are unique to this ­country – as I say, an expensive but ­necessary hobby.
Social Security Scotland is now ­responsible for delivering a range of benefits, including some that are new and unique to Scotland, such as the Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Payments. ­
The Best Start element covers a whole range of payments, many of which start during pregnancy and continue through early learning and school years.
John Swinney's SNP Government has said ending child poverty is its top priority (Image: Jane Barlow) Of course, these are only available to families already poor enough to qualify for other benefits, but isn't that the point? Giving money to people who don't need it is what irritates the hell out of many taxpayers, even when they acknowledge the eye-watering cost of means testing.
The massive row which engulfed ­Labour over proposed 'reforms' to the benefits system wasn't just because of the ballooning cost of sickness benefit, but because the folk who promised change to their new constituents on their doorsteps never envisaged that the change in ­question was to emerge as red Tories.
The UK Government will argue that they have done many fine things which go largely unacknowledged. That may be so, but when among your first acts in office are to hit pensioners, threaten to ­disenfranchise thousands of ­benefit ­recipients and get the farming ­community on the march, you can hardly blame ­people for muttering that this was ­certainly not why they voted for the people's party.
The other morning, I heard a GP ­pushing back very hard on the idea that the people going through her consulting room were swinging the lead rather than avoiding paid employment.
She said that the Covid years had changed her clients beyond recognition and that we were facing an explosion in mental health problems.
READ MORE: Reform UK attack King Charles over small boats comments in UK-France speech
When you look at the waiting lists for appointments in that area, it's difficult to disagree. Bit by bit, we are beginning to learn how profoundly those three years of social restrictions have impacted huge swathes of society.
Some of the people most severely ­affected were those who did work ­during the pandemic, who kept the show on the road for the rest of us. Everyone from health professionals to delivery drivers didn't have the luxury of observing social distancing.
That period also saw the birth of them and us – the people stuck up high rises with small children who tried to marry their own need to keep working and put food on the table with the imperative to ensure their children were still being home-schooled. And those of us who had ready access to wide open spaces and could construct a social bubble in our own locality.
That divide was mirrored in the teaching profession – I know of teachers who worked their socks off providing oven-ready lessons for the children of already stressed parents, and some others who didn't seem to give too much of a stuff.
Let's hope we can recall some of the fallout from those years, because most of the scientific community is convinced that we are not that far away from another pandemic, given the nature of globalisation and travel.
Not a pretty thought, but one essential to confront. Let's hope that if there is a next time round, the door won't be flung open to all the chancers who thought it perfectly OK to line their own pockets on the back of national misery.
Let's hope too that if there is a next time round, Scotland will finally be in charge of its own destiny. It has become ­fashionable in some quarters to decry any notion that Scotland is in any way ­exceptional. That we are somehow more thirled to ­social justice than elsewhere and less racist with it.
In truth, so many people in this ­country are too preoccupied with surviving, with trying to have some month left at the end of their money, to fret about matters ­constitutional. It doesn't mean they can't be inspired and motivated by clarion calls to a different future.
Morgan in Wales has doubtless got more than half an eye on the Welsh elections next year. Surely time for some Scots politicians to enthuse their troops too. The electoral clock is ticking ever more loudly.