Contrary to Liz Truss’s amusing and widely reported remark during this prolonged leadership contest “ignoring” Nicola Sturgeon is not the answer in dealing with the fault line that currently runs through the United Kingdom.
Arguably it’s ignoring the fundamental issues around the Scottish Parliament over the years, beyond giving it more powers and pumping more and more money into its poorly run government, that have landed us in a perpetual state of grievance and lack of common purpose. Successive governments have failed to take the initiative beyond a referendum which did not solve the issue.
Nationalism never goes away but it must be constantly tackled head on. Sweeping it under the carpert and ‘just letting them get on with it’ only makes matters worse. Westminster has allowed Nicola Sturgeon to empire build at the expense of the people of Scotland. Essential public services withering in order to resource vanity projects.
But all of this can change, and change quickly.
When Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss head north to the Scottish Hustings in Perth next week they need to comprehensively change the dynamic. And it is really simple to do.
Douglas Ross MP, MSP is the solution, twice over.
Firstly, Ross wisely decided not to publicly declare which candidate he was supporting. He is a ‘clean skin’. Whoever wins he can work with.
Secondly, Ross has a dual mandate, sitting both at Westminster and Holyrood. It’s time that mandate was put to work.
Whoever becomes Prime Minister should appoint Ross, Secretary of State for Scotland (or at least Minister of State attending Cabinet - in my view this is less effective on two fronts: 1. Being Secretary of State elevates the challenge to Sturgeon and, 2. Perpetuating the nonsense of lower ranked ministers attending Cabinet is wrong).
With this ministerial appointment Douglas Ross reinforces the importance of the role because it is now relevant in TWO parliaments at Westminster of course but also in Holyrood where he now speaks officially as the Leader of the Opposition who just happens to be the Secretary of State. He can engage more, genuinely claiming to be representing Scotland at the heart of the UK government and likewise he’s representing the UK in Scotland.
This dual mandate gives the role heft, it pulls London and Edinburgh closer and adds relevance to the role of Secretary of State which has been allowed to decline over more than a decade.
Yes more needs to be done but this is an immediate step which signals clearly, to everyone, that things are changing.
Perhaps something both Rishi and Liz can agree on.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Izatt is a brand consultant living in London and founder of Mission Critical, a highly focused and curated weekly briefing for time-poor and information-hungry decision-makers. He also produces THE DAILY, a complimentary weekday new briefing and you can sign-up here. No spam, just short and sharp. Mark was a Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Scotland from 1994-95 and subsequently stood in the then Clydesdale constituency at the 1997 General Election before spending 10 years living and working in New York.