Labour cuts a return to Thatcherism

Writing in the Sunday Times Finance Secretary John Swinney wrote that Labour's cuts can return Scotland to dark days of Thatcher and that Labour could face the same fate as the Tories north of the border.

Mr Swinney wrote:

"It is almost two decades since Margaret Thatcher’s grip on Scotland was finally loosened, after years in which her policies laid waste huge swathes of the nation’s industrial base and abandoned far too many people, leaving them without any real hope for their future.

"Whole families had their prospects dashed by the uncaring Tory attitude to Scotland during the Thatcher and John Major years, something the Conservative party reaped an electoral whirlwind from north of the border from which they may never recover.

"The Labour party this weekend has cause to ponder whether it too is about to suffer a similar fate at the hands of Scots voters. For although it is almost 20 years since Thatcher’s views held sway, this week’s Labour budget has, in one respect, brought Scotland right back to where it was under the Tories."

Mr Swinney added:

"Scotland needs more powers if it is to be able to compete on a level playing field with other nations in taking advantage of the opportunities that will come with recovery.

"It has often been said that Thatcher’s most significant legacy to Scotland is the Scottish parliament itself, with her policies ensuring that Scots were no longer prepared to settle for remote control from Westminster and demanding home rule instead.

"Brown’s legacy to Scotland may well turn out to be the demand from the people of Scotland that we now need full responsibility for the economic and financial levers that other nations take for granted by becoming an independent nation.

"For who seriously can say now that the Union in general — and Labour’s handling of the economy in particular — has helped Scotland? Brown and Labour’s legacy to this country is one of economic incompetence and abject failure."

The full article can be read here.