Thrive by Lesley Riddoch sampler
Why won’t Scots simmer down? Why batter on about independence when folk voted No a decade back? After all. Scotland’s not as populated as Yorkshire, nor as wealthy as London. But it’s also not as Conservative, as keen on Brexit, or as willing to flog public assets to Tory party pals. So does Nicola Sturgeon’s departure terminally damage the case for independence? The answer, with all respect to her legacy, is no. Scotland has bigger fish to fry. In this book, Lesley Riddoch makes an impassioned call to action, weaving academic evidence with story, international comparison and anecdote to explain why Scotland is ready to step forward as the world’s newest state.
Why won’t Scots simmer down?
Why batter on about independence when folk voted No a decade back?
After all. Scotland’s not as populated as Yorkshire, nor as wealthy as London. But it’s also not as Conservative, as keen on Brexit, or as willing to flog public assets to Tory party pals.
So does Nicola Sturgeon’s departure terminally damage the case for independence?
The answer, with all respect to her legacy, is no.
Scotland has bigger fish to fry.
In this book, Lesley Riddoch makes an impassioned call to action, weaving academic evidence with story, international comparison and anecdote to explain why Scotland is ready to step forward as the world’s newest state.
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New England and Auld Europe<br />
33<br />
down a blackboard. Far easier to avoid the whole unsettling<br />
experience and watch Humza Yousaf pick his way through<br />
First Minister’s Questions instead.<br />
Better still, stifle hope completely (that awkward wee<br />
bugger) <strong>by</strong> insisting an independent country will inevitably<br />
mirror the current strengths and weaknesses – actually let’s<br />
just make that weaknesses – of the Scottish Government. Now,<br />
if Holyrood was making a total mess of things compared to<br />
Westminster this might be a useful exercise. But – whatever<br />
the eye-catching errors, negative headlines and fair criticism<br />
– it generally isn’t.<br />
Scotland has lower levels of child poverty, shorter nhs<br />
waiting times, more affordable homes, fewer rough sleepers,<br />
better supported carers, less student debt and public<br />
procurement that operates without vip fast lanes or crony<br />
contracts. Scotland has cut climate emissions further, boosted<br />
renewables, electrified rail lines, rolled out free childcare, led<br />
the world with minimum unit pricing for alcohol and free<br />
period products and free school meals for all children in<br />
primary years one to five, while England’s offer, ‘explained’<br />
in a 21-page booklet, is so complex that an Eligibility Checking<br />
System (ECS) has been launched to help. Which probably costs<br />
the same as just giving all primary kids free lunches.<br />
All of this is why, a February 2023 report <strong>by</strong> the toughtalking<br />
Institute of Fiscal Studies concluded Scotland’s tax<br />
and benefits system is more progressive than anywhere else in<br />
the uk. And it’s probably why three in five Scots said Nicola<br />
Sturgeon made Scotland a better place, in a poll conducted<br />
two days after her resignation.<br />
It’s also why two-thirds of Scots sampled in the Social<br />
Attitudes Survey said they could trust Scottish ministers to<br />
work in their best interests in November 2022, amidst a ferries’<br />
fiasco and controversy over Gender Recognition Reform. Only<br />
a third of that figure said the same about Westminster. 63<br />
per cent said Holyrood gives ordinary people a say in how<br />
Scotland is run. 57 per cent said the uk Government can’t be
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