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First Minister confirms minority rule is a “serious option” |
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Monday, 23 April 2007 |
Jack McConnell will run Scotland as head of a minority Labour administration if Labour does well enough at the polls and the terms for coalition are not right, and even if a coalition goes ahead, it would have to be with a “change of approach” from previous terms.
Back in December, McConnell let it be known through his advisers that
he would be considering a minority administration as an option in the
run-up to the election and now, two weeks before the public go to the
polls, he told Holyrood that this was a road he was definitely prepared
to go down and said that it was the smoking ban that had helped him
come to this way of thinking. It is understood that he now believes the
Parliament is mature enough to cope with parliamentarians voting on an
issue by issue basis.
“I think I am ready to be more radical and stronger in leadership in a
third term than even I’ve been in the last five years, and that’s why I
keep both options open.”
He said that he thought there were problems with the way coalitions
operate. “It lacks transparency and decisions and compromises are made
behind the scenes, people don’t see the debates that take place and I
think that is an issue. Even in a new coalition, there would have to be
a change of approach.”
McConnell said that he wanted to open up the debates so that people can
see the different positions that are adopted before compromises are
made.
While saying that he thought coalition was right for the first term of
the Parliament “because we were building an institution” and for the
second term “because the Parliament’s credibility was at stake”, he
says that now there is a real choice about how a ruling administration
would be formed.
“Leading a government that will win support for legislation on an issue by issue basis is a serious option.
“I think the Parliament has matured. I believe, for example, on
environmental issues, that it is possible that there could be support
in Parliament from the Greens, from the Liberal Democrats, and if the
SNP ever allow their members a free vote on anything, which they
haven’t done for the last eight years, if they ever actually loosen up
a bit as a group, then some back benchers in the other parties as well,
we could build support for a climate change bill.
“If you have a bill to tackle crime and deal with drugs then I think it
would be possible to win the support of the Tories and even the
support, possibly, on an issue like that, from the Trots. So I think
there is a potential here to build coalitions on legislation and on
policies that wasn’t there in the first two Parliaments.”
The First Minister said that the reason for his conversion to the
merits of a minority administration was the success of the smoking ban.
“The thing that has inspired me to think about it is the smoking ban
because the ban on smoking in public places was a controversial
decision. I was converted by public debate, I’ve made no secret of
that. Once I was converted, I took the brave pills and announced it,
and went for it, but more than any other measure, it is that decision
that has given the Parliament the renewed credibility of the people of
Scotland where our people see the Parliament doing something that was
bold and radical and about the future of the country.
“It has inspired me to think about what might be possible in the next
four years if we had the same bold, radical approach to other areas.”
In what some might see as a clear warning message to the Liberal
Democrats, Labour’s Holyrood coalition partners of eight years,
McConnell said that he would only consider a coalition if the terms
were right.
“If I could implement the policies that I’ve outlined, the priority for
education, the education spending, the skills academies, the support
for two year olds, the expansion of [our] universities and colleges,
raising the school leaving age, if I can implement all those policies
within a coalition, and I don’t have to implement any nonsense like a
local income tax.”
Labour has, in recent years, become increasingly frustrated with
Liberal Democrat tactics of forming policy as part of the Executive but
also distancing itself when it suits, such as in the Dunfermline
by-election when Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen campaigned with
winning candidate Willie Rennie, who criticised a proposal from the
“Labour-controlled FETA” over proposals to increase the Forth Road
Bridge toll to £4, despite the fact that it was a Liberal Democrat
Transport Minister who would make the final decision on the matter.
Even if Labour decides to go it alone after the election, it is
possible that members of other parties could be members of a Cabinet
team.
Having a minority administration, or a coalition that is more
transparent to the public in terms of how decisions are arrived at,
might be a way of moving from a Parliament polarized by strong
Executive or party lines, to a more open and consensual style of debate.
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