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reform has delivered radicalism in Scotland
John Mcternan

The establishment of the Scottish Parliament has turned out to be an unequivocal, if unexpected, victory for progressive politics. Achievements that the left can be proud of have been won on the basis of political co- operation underpinned by electoral reform.

Scottish Labour politics has long had a reputation for being more tribal, less forward-looking, than national Labour. Not just Old Labour, but Antediluvian Labour. An often-expressed fear was that the Scottish Parliament would turn out to be like Glasgow District Council but with the power to raise income tax and to pass primary legislation. And in reality West of Scotland Labour Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) dominate the membership of the Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party (SPLP) and through the SPLP the membership of the government of the Scottish Executive.

Yet it is Scotland - alone in the United Kingdom - that has repealed the Tories' notorious, homophobic Section 28 (Section 2A in Scotland). This in spite of a concerted assault funded by millionaire Brian Souter and promoted by Scotland's highest circulation tabloid 'The Daily Record' (sister paper of 'The Mirror'). What has transformed Scotland into a convinced defender of individual liberties and identity politics? Certainly the presence of individual politicians within the Scottish Labour Party committed to the highest standards of social liberalism. Donald Dewar made the repeal of Section 2A his proudest boast in his final speech to Labour Party Conference before his tragic and untimely death. On its own this personal commitment would not have been enough. Even though Dewar was strongly supported by his Education Minister Sam Galbraith and Minister for Communities Wendy Alexander it was widely known that at least three senior Labour members of his Cabinet were in revolt over this policy. What gave Dewar the upper hand - and delivered the reform - was the support of the Liberal Democrats in his Cabinet, and the Liberal Democrat MSPs in the Parliament. For the Scottish Executive, the government of Scotland is a coalition government - the first peace-time coalition in Britain since the 1930s - and the Liberal Democrats have had a genuinely liberalising effect on the dynamics of Scottish politics. In a sense the new parliamentary and electoral system is delivering the new politics for which it was designed.

One of the great fears of supporters of devolution was that home rule would entrench and institutionalise the one-party rule which has been the distinguishing feature of post-war politics in most of urban Scotland. The deal inside the Labour Party between Neil Kinnock, then leader, and John Smith, the most prominent proponent of devolution, took this challenge head on. There was to be a Scottish Parliament but it must be elected by proportional representation. At the heart of this deal there was a crude political calculation that it was not in the Labour Party's interest, in either the short or the long term, to allow the devolved government to be permanently dominated by a Labour majority.

There was, in addition, a more sophisticated underlying analysis that took the view that any form of PR would lead to a coalition government in Scotland and that the most likely coalition partners would be Labour and the Liberals. The consequence of any such coalition would be that Labour would be drawn to the centre of politics. At the least that would lead to a less ideological, more electable Labour party; at its best, and as it has proved so far, it can lead to a government promoting the policies of the radical centre. It is one of the profound ironies of the politics of the last five years that while Tony Blair as Prime Minister is genuinely committed to just such a new politics, the best exponent of what that would look like in action is the Scottish Executive. And furthermore the areas in which that new radicalism has emerged are ones that put the Scottish government in opposition to the policies espoused by New Labour in government in Whitehall.

The two key areas of radical policy difference are tuition fees for students and free personal care for the elderly. The former was the first fruit of the coalition negotiations and was a concession to the Liberal Democrats, the junior partners, although one which was not too painful for Labour backbenchers to sign up to. Scotland has had a historic commitment to broader access to higher education and a successful track record in already achieving participation rates of 50% of young people in higher education. So this was a policy which could be redistributionist (for Labour), a negotiating victory (for the Liberal Democrats), and a powerful symbol of the kind of Scottish solution for a Scottish problem for which the Parliament was established (for the public at large).

Free personal care for the elderly was the landmark policy of the McLeish administration. Though hugely popular with parliamentary backbenchers of almost all parties and with the public at large this policy only came to fruition because the Labour First Minister Henry McLeish received the full backing of his Liberal Democrat Cabinet colleagues - Jim Wallace and Ross Finney. A number of McLeish's Labour colleagues in the Cabinet were far more sceptical about the benefits of the policy. The argument promoted by McLeish for the policy was based on a strong appeal for social justice on which Donald Dewar and Jim Wallace had first based their administration. The need for long-term care is a classic risk against which we need to insure collectively. The cost to any individual family of caring for a dementing parent is so great, yet the actual risk is so randomly distributed, that it is impossible for any individual or family to insure reasonably against the risks. (Ironically, pretty much the same case the Chancellor Gordon Brown makes for the continuance of a fully tax-funded National Health Service). However, this classic social democratic policy could only have been implemented within the coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

These two popular policies highlight the progressive impact of PR within the Executive. There are other less tangible, but no less real, benefits. A stronger Freedom of Information Act is based on a Justice Minister - Jim Wallace - who is true to his Liberal heritage and has resisted many of the policy initiatives emanating from the Straw/Blunkett Home Office. Wallace has consistently made clear that he is unconvinced of the need to keep strengthening the powers of the state over the individual. A higher profile for environmental issues has taken root because Liberals have shifted Scottish Labour from its traditional conservatism.

The next stage for Scotland is to introduce proportional representation into local government. This has been a Liberal Democrat aspiration since entering government in Scotland and it is very likely that had they pressed harder in early negotiations it might already be in train. As it is the Scottish Executive have spent nearly three years reviewing the issues and talking about potential reforms and possible timetables. The Scottish Labour Party are currently consulting their membership about this issue and are - unsurprisingly - finding that many in local government are unwilling to give up their power easily. It is now almost inevitable that PR will be legislated for in the next parliament, for the Liberal Democrats - from grass roots to high command - omitting it from a partnership agreement would be a deal breaker. It also makes overwhelming sense to any Scot who is not a sitting Labour councillor. It is hard to see what benefit a party political perspective brings to most local services: the decisions about how best to care for 'looked-after' children, for example, or how to expand child care services. And it is impossible to argue that the narrow pool from which the Labour Party draws to provide the council leadership for Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee or any of its other fiefdoms are the best and the brightest of Labour's supporters let alone the cream of all the available local talent.

The best community leadership is increasingly detached from traditional party structures and any reform which opens up local governance to a more diverse group will be of lasting value. PR for local government will almost certainly have to be built on multi-member Single Transferable Vote (STV). There is some Labour support for a localised version of the Additional Member System (AMS) that the Parliament currently uses. However, that is so opaque to voters and has clearly led to two classes of MSP - constituency MSPS (real ones) and list MSPs (the others) - that it would be madness to seek to mirror it at the local level. In fact, STV in local elections would add pressure for the case increasingly being made for a reform of the Scottish Parliament's electoral system to make it truly proportional. Both STV based reforms will be resisted by strong factions within the labour Party but they should be welcomed by progressives. PR - even in a less than ideal form - has already enabled Scotland to experience what it feels like to be a small Northern European nation with a social democratic government supported by a liberal centrist party. And we like it a lot.