So does Scotland, a nation in which a seven-stop train journey east from Glasgow city centre can be measured by a fourteen-year drop in life expectancy, have a convincing plan for combating poverty? What, apart from bringing full control of welfare benefits north of the border, would independence do for people whose basic needs are so badly neglected?
One of the most extreme manifestations of poverty is the rise of food banks.
At the recent Nourish Scotland conference, I heard why Jamie Oliver’s so-called affordable home-cooked pizza costing £1.69 is no match for a salty, sugary £1 supermarket version, no matter how aware a person is of the value of a healthy diet. When your income falls below a full-time Living Wage a 69p saving can make the difference between a daily hot meal and too many days living off toast. I also heard that the stigma linked to food banks means that any assessment of need based on their use will be a gross underestimate.
The SNP claims that after independence Scotland would be ranked as the sixth wealthiest nation in terms of per capita GDP. But as Senator Robert F Kennedy famously said, what use is GDP as a measure when it measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile? In our case, what use is a pre-referendum debate about GDP when there is too little attention paid to the wellbeing of every citizen of Scotland?
Meanwhile when a leading Labour politician is asked “Is it right that people on benefits should be paid more than people who are in work?” the answer is a simple “no”. How does that response speak to the many Scottish people whose wages have failed to keep pace with rising costs? I include in this not just the staff of major corporates locked into under-employment on zero hours contracts, but also the Scottish fruit and veg farmer whose positive contribution to people, planet and Scotland’s food security leaves his children poor enough to qualify for free school meals and his employees paid less than a Living Wage.
Our food system is a good place to start if you want to consider how challenging it might be to build a new Scottish economy. A sustainable economy providing good quality jobs for everyone who can work, and adequate support for those who can’t, would be one which ensures that we are all wealthier in all the ways that really matter. I can’t choose between yes and no when the only vision on offer is of a dysfunctional economy which both tolerates a massive wealth gap and offers sweeteners to companies that extract value from our labour and infrastructure without returning a fair share in taxes.This approach impoverishes us all.
What every anti-poverty campaigner dreams of is the day their organisation is rendered redundant. Maybe so few third sector organisations see the relevance of the referendum debate because nothing we hear suggests that such a day is coming any time soon.
Last modified on 23 January 2020
