Agenda for a New Scotland
Visions of Scotland 2020

Edited by Kenny MacAskill

Highlights from Agenda for a New Scotland

Foreword

GEORGE REID MSP
I commend Agenda for a New Scotland to all who believe that our country has a bright future, and who want to play their part in making sure that it happens.

Introduction

Romanticism to Realism – Creating a Caledonian Consensus
KENNY MacASKILL MSP
It will…be from and through this Parliament that change will occur and Scotland’s future will be decided. No other institution has that right or will take that responsibility. It is for the Scottish Parliament to shape and mould the future of the Scotland. But what is that future to be?

Section I: Scene setting

From The Red Paper To Now
OWEN DUDLEY EDWARDS
So the first stark point which comes of…the Red Paper is that the thirty years show a disgraceful contrast in the condition of the kind of person who made it. In its existence, it implied a place for youth in shaping the country’s future; that landmark is now a tombstone.

Section II: A Confident Country

Scotland’s Tipping Point
DR CAROL CRAIG
The challenge for all of us is to make sure that this new social epidemic isn’t snuffed out by negativity and ‘cannae do’ attitudes but spreads throughout Scotland like a virulent, but ultimately benign, infection.

Scotland in the World
HENRY McLEISH
We fail to see how devolution has given Scotland the chance to look at itself in wider contexts. We are not doing enough to re-examine our attitudes and our approach to the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. To do that, and to take advantage of the exciting opportunities presented to us as a nation, we must first change our national mindset and the attitude we present to the world.

Activating the Scots Diaspora
JIM MATHER MSP
The number of Americans claiming Scots descent is said to have grown in the last ten years by over 50% and it is surely time that we harnessed and channelled that sense of identity and its accompanying goodwill for Scotland.

Section III: A Vibrant Economy

The Economic Development Challenge for 2020
ROBERT CRAWFORD
Ireland transformed its economic fortunes in a generation. So did Taiwan and Singapore. So can Scotland.

Working for Scotland
SHONAIG MACPHERSON
I hope that by 2020 in Scotland we shall have found the means to ensure that we are maximising our economic potential by providing ample work opportunities for all who wish to participate.

Developing our Renewables Potential: A Win Win for Scotland
SARAH BOYACK MSP
Our aspiration should be that if we looked back twenty years from now, we would see the building blocks of the Green Industrial Revolution called for by Tony Blair this year and a decisive shift away from “business as usual”.

Oil and Gas: Is the barrel half-empty or half-full?
JOHN ALDERSEY-WILLIAMS, JAMES McCALLUM, ALLAN MacASKILL
Immediate intervention is required is required if we are to win the prize that is the 30 billion barrels of unproduced hydrocarbon and deliver a long and prosperous future the UK energy industry, securing many tens of thousands of jobs.

Transport: Moving Scotland out of first gear
DR IAIN DOCHERTY
Instead, we need to create a political culture in which transport policy, as for other areas of government intervention, is focused on a more “nationalist” agenda about genuine sustainability, which faces up to our international responsibilities, as well as satisfying internal demands.

Section IV: A People's Democracy

A politics of the people
ALEX BELL
In the new mood of honesty, the nation must admit its old narrative, of singular heroes beaten in tragic ends, is over. There is a new story to tell, of people coming together to help each other and the end is unknown, but it is not presumed to be miserable.

Education: the Importance of Culture
PROF LINDSAY PATERSON
The problems of over-assessment, or of inadequate educating of the whole child, or of ‘standards’ are not unreal; but they are symptoms. Underlying them is a lack of serious attention to purpose.

Towards a radically new politics
PROF JAMES MITCHELL
Aspects of Scottish culture are harmful and legislation alone will not change this. Open debate, led by our parliamentarians in Holyrood, forcing us to face up to the uglier and damaging aspects of our culture will start to bring about the changes required.

Changing Scotland in a Changing World
SUSAN DEACON MSP
The need for wholesale reform of the Civil Service cannot be understated… A major programme of organisational change is required and that, above all else, should be taken forward as a matter of urgency.

Section V: A Just and Fair Society

Prospects for Scotland’s Health and Healthcare
SIR DAVID CARTER
Healthcare in 2020 will be radically different. Government will finally have cracked the problems surrounding IT modernisation and bulky hand-written case notes will be a distant memory.

From Hovels To Houses, But Now Let’s Have Some Quality
DR DOUGLAS ROBERTSON
Inextricably linked to quality is the issue of sustainability. There’s a need for urban intensification, rather than allowing ever-expanding suburban growth.

Social Work: Progress Through Change
DUNCAN MacAULAY
Social work can lead this country in the integration and inclusion of all its citizens. In return, our society needs help to understand the work we do, and through that understanding come to value, praise and celebrate the work we do on their behalf.

Equality: the politics of poverty
DAVID DONNISON
So what should Scotland look like in 2020? Class differences and ethnic differences in life chances, and differences in the pay and status of men and women should all be reduced, with all the implications for education, health care, and housing that follow from that statement.

Crime and Justice
ROGER HOUCHIN
Is our primary interest to express our outrage at these behaviours we don’t like by prosecuting them under the criminal law in the knowledge that doing so we will be ineffective in reducing the levels of such behaviour? Or is our interest in reducing offending?

Section VI: A Broad and Diverse land

A Cosmopolitan Country?
SALLY DAGHLIAN
Many commentators and the public at large seem to have forgotten that Scotland has welcomed and benefited from the arrival of refugees throughout its history. Indeed the term ‘melting pot’ so often applied to the ethnic diversity of the USA could as easily be applied to Scotland.

North of Shettleston
JEAN URQUHART
It is easy to get passionate about this land; it is easy to get romantic about it too. Community buy-outs could be the beginning, the very beginning, of a necessary revolution.

Capital City 2020
COUNCILLOR DONALD ANDERSON
Our vision for Edinburgh is ambitious. By 2020 we want it to be the most successful and sustainable city in Northern Europe.

Scotland: Organising For Peace
LINDA FABIANI MSP
Scotland can stake its place in Europe and the world by having the vision to promote peace and stability. Our reputation for democratic and peaceful constitutional change means that we could be established as a force in aiding conflict resolution, even within our current regional status.

Section VII: A Sporting and Cultural Renaissance

Scottish Football: Grassroots to Glory
TONY HIGGINS
For a small country like Scotland, football is so important in promoting our national identity; the team and the Tartan Army have over the years played a major part in developing a positive attitude towards Scotland throughout the world.

A People's Arts
ELAINE C SMITH
The divide between supposed high and low art is now very blurred with people from Motherwell as likely to be at a thriving Scottish Ballet as a pantomime at the newly refurbished Kings Theatre in Edinburgh or a pop concert in the new National Arena in the grounds of the old Hampden.

Books Don’t Crash: How digital, corporate and cultural shifts will change publishing in Scotland by 2020
LORRAINE FANNIN
If book publishing is part of the process of recording the nation's intellectual life, then Scottish publishing is crucial.