The nation that got what it wanted
Politics Notebook #5: What unites the fallout over Sir Keir Starmer’s praise of Margaret Thatcher and the Pisa scores.
Sometimes two news stories coincide in a way that illuminates something not otherwise obvious.
This is the case with Anas Sarwar’s decision to distance himself from his UK leader’s comments about Margaret Thatcher and the publication of the findings of Pisa, the Programme for International Student Assessment.
Story Number One: Can’t let Maggie go
On Sunday, Sir Keir Starmer penned an op-ed for the Telegraph in which he wrote: ‘Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism.’ This was part of his pitch soft-right voters disillusioned with the Conservatives and echoes similar tactics employed by Tony Blair ahead of the 1997 election.
Predictably, Sir Keir’s remarks did not go down well with the hard-left of his party and were also seized upon by the SNP, with Humza Yousaf branding them ‘an insult to those communities in Scotland, and across the UK, who still bear the scars of her disastrous policies’.
This instantly put pressure on Labour’s Scottish leader Anas Sarwar, who could hardly afford to be seen as less anti-Thatcher than the leader of the SNP. So on Tuesday, he let it be known that: ‘Margaret Thatcher destroyed communities across this country — she decimated Scotland.’ Not even the Iron Lady’s most fervid critics accuse her of killing one in every ten Scots, so we can assume that Sarwar meant to say she did severe damage to Scotland.
We won’t get bogged down in whether or not Yousaf and Sarwar’s critiques of Thatcher are fair or accurate. Let’s just note that a) Thatcher has been dead for ten years, b) she left office 33 years ago and yet c) she looms large enough in the psyche of the Scottish political establishment to merit ritual denunciation.
Story Number Two: Another Pisa the puzzle
Pisa, the international schools research programme, measures educational performance at age 15. The latest study analysed attainment by 700,000 pupils from 81 nations, 3,300 of them in Scottish schools. Scotland’s science score was down 14 points on 2015 while its maths score had dropped 20 points in the same timeframe. The country’s reading score was 33 points shy of where it stood in 2000.
Cue much anger towards the SNP, which has been in control of Scottish education since 2007. This anger is justified, not least because former first minister Nicola Sturgeon declared education to be the ‘number one priority’ of her government, but there were problems in evidence before the Nationalists came to power. Between 2000 and 2006, under the old Labour-Lib Dem Scottish Executive, Scotland’s reading score fell by 27 points while its maths score tumbled 18 points between 2003 and 2006. (Note, however, changes in methodology, sample size and the assessments for maths and science between 2000 and 2006.)
So while the SNP is owed the lion’s share of the blame for the devaluing of Scottish education, the performance it inherited was hardly without blemish.
While it might not seem obvious, the common denominator between these two stories is devolution.
Thatcher was a Unionist and therefore an opponent of devolution but devolution is arguably her most enduring legacy in Scotland. For it was her time in Number 10 that helped galvanise public enthusiasm for the creation of a Scottish parliament, which had been fairly tepid when the prospect of an assembly was put to the voters 1979. (The cursed 52/48 ratio on a 64% turnout.)
Despite that parliament turning 25 next year, these two stories underscore just how little Scottish politics has moved forward in a quarter-century. That the destructive effects of Thatcherite policy are still discussed is understandable, for some of these policies were destructive indeed, even if folk memory has isolated them from social and economic trends that pre-date Thatcher and which no government could have staved off.
What is striking is how the Scottish political establishment continues to regard Thatcher as an almost metaphysical force of evil, or at least thinks that it must be seen to treat her as such. Allow me to posit a reason for this: they miss her. Scottish politics used to be so much easier than it is now. Everything was Thatcher’s fault, or the fault of the Tories in general. There was no social ill that could not be traced back to the baleful influence over Scotland of the grocer’s daughter from Grantham.
Now they don’t have this Iron Lady to kick around anymore and, well, things aren’t going great. Devolution was about allowing Scotland to make many legislative and policy decisions for itself and in so doing protect Scottish public services from the Tories. After a quarter-century of making its own decisions on education, Scotland’s schools have become a byword for declining standards, diminished outcomes and a stubbornly wide attainment gap.
I’m not suggesting that devolution is the reason for the decline in Scottish education. I’m merely noting that after a quarter-century of the Scottish Parliament — a quarter-century of the democratic, institutional and financial means to make its own choices — Scotland’s education system seems to be in a worse condition than before.
Scottish politics has for generations been organised around blaming someone else for every intractable problem and undesirable outcome, that someone else invariably being Westminster under either the Tories or Labour. The failings of the Scottish education system are difficult for the political class to face up to because there is no one else to blame.
Sure, you can damn the legacy of Thatcher but that one’s only going to fly for so long. You can blame the disruptions to education caused by pandemic-era school closures, but that doesn’t account for the longer-term decline.
If you’re a nationalist, you can blame the absence of independence and assert that full sovereignty would allow Scotland to remedy its education system’s ills and inequalities, but if you are a thinking (and intellectually honest) nationalist, you have to outline what these remedies would be, explain why some of them can’t be implemented now, calculate how they would be paid for, and concede that independence is no guarantee of educational excellence, only the opportunity to try and, as can be seen in independent nations across the world, the chance to fail.
The problems in Scottish education are not insuperable but they are complex, entrenched and will take time, reform, investment and, bluntly, luck to solve. There is no constitutional shortcut, as devolution has shown and independence would undoubtedly confirm, and no way forward in vilification and victimhood.
Which is to say that the main themes of Scottish politics for almost three generations now have proved themselves not only inadequate but detrimental to the country’s wellbeing and its chances of improving outcomes. Decades upon decades have been wasted and more will likely be wasted before we see any change of direction.
Getting what you want is not always a good thing. The Scottish political class wanted self-government while clinging to cherished myths of external malefactors doing down Scotland. They got what they wanted and found that the malefactors failing Scotland were much, much closer to home.
Hi another excellent article. Great arguments for closing down the Scottish Parliament. I feel for the kids who have been down.
I think you are being very generous in not blaming devolution for the decline in educational standards in Scotland. When you consider we used to be the byword for a solid education for our children but not now after 25 years of Scotland being directly responsible. Whilst Margaret Thatcher may have left the stage a long time ago, the SNP waste no time in still blaming Westminster for their own shortcomings and incompetence. Sadly, I don't think we're going to vote our way out of this mess as staying on the Holyrood and WM gravy train is the focus, whilst education and other public services continue in rapid, and I would argue, managed decline. Rock bottom is the target before you can 6uild 6ack 6etter.