A Different Kind of Deficit

Today the UK has a new Prime Minister-Theresa May. Congratulations to her. Admittedly, I find it surprising that in a post Brexit UK, the new Conservative leader supported Remain. Are we to believe the Brexit leadership couldn’t muster a committed candidate or had some agreement already been reached? One look at the Cabinet might offer some clues.

It is strange that the leave campaign didn’t offer any real candidate. Sure there was Johnston, Gove and Leadsom-but none stayed in the race long enough to contest May’s leadership. The entire contest had the feel of theatre. The real competition never began; they all just fell into line.

On the other side, the Labour Party is in disarray. The Parliamentary Labour Party is trying to exert its power over the wider membership and out Corbyn. Corbyn for his part will not go. There’s much frustration as the fissures between the voting membership and the PLP grow.

Amid this theatrical political chaos, George Osborne sought to make Britain a “free trade beacon” post Brexit. On the face of it, the term seems quite benign. The question is- what does it mean? Osborne may be gone, but the neoliberal economics is not.

Prime Minister May has appointed Conservative MP George Freeman as her new head of policy. This is the same MP that suggested exempting corporations from tax, abolishing green energy subsidies, and exempting corporations from following employment rights for their first three years.

Meanwhile, the new Chancellor begins his quest for free trade. Agreements that would have previously met rigorous protections of EU regulation will now only face the protections upheld by the Conservative Government.

One can glean Mr Hammond is considering new plans for state assets. It is very likely he will pursue privatisation as part of his economic model. This will mean assets which Scottish and UK tax payers have invested in for the past 70 years may be repositioned into private hands.

Even more telling is the UK Government’s decision to renew Trident, with an estimated to cost up to £200 billion. In the Trident renewal vote, 58 of 59 Scottish MPs voted against renewal.

This comes amid repeated criticism of the NHS and BBC- two major state assets. In fact, one major Brexit claim was that money would be available from the EU to fund the NHS. That was not true. The Conservative Government has instead committed to investing in Trident rather than public services.

What we learn at last is there is an immense democratic deficit in this country. In Scotland, we have opposed the destructive and short-sighted decisions of the UK Government. This divergence seems to become more pronounced as time passes.

I hope that the new UK Prime Minister recognises that Scotland has its own voice. The UK Government must listen. There will need to be significant work on recognising and operating from the Scottish perspective on the EU, social justice and public services.

Those who have paid into the NHS, those who have asked for peace, fair work, and those who demand a positive internationalist country cannot be ignored.