Kate Forbes: 'Let’s start by breaking up Highland Council – you heard it here first'
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SNP leadership candidates set out their competing visions for the Highlands and the country today as Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf gathered and all stated a significant break with the past summed up in one word – decentralisation.
Fielding questions from those in the audience the different approaches the candidates outlined were unified by one main strand – turning towards the SNP membership for policy direction.
Under Nicola Sturgeon the SNP was heavily criticised for hoarding power in Edinburgh leaving many around the country including the Highlands feeling their views or concerns were not being heard or even dismissed.
- Humza Yousaf: CalMac should be 'decentralised and based in the heart of our community'
- Ash Regan: ‘Breaking up Highland Council – I think that's a very good idea’
Empowering local communities
All the candidates looked to turn away from that, starting with Kate Forbes calling for "empowering those in local communities to make the right, best decisions for the people that they serve."
And she also signalled that big changes could be underway if she becomes First Minister including breaking up Highland Council – long seen as too large and unwieldy – and giving frontline workers greater say in how services are delivered.
Scandinavian-style democracy
One SNP member asked: "My question concerns maximising support for independence throughout Scotland particularly in the northern isles and borders where the Edinburgh government would not be remote and not a great advantage over the one in Westminster.
"My question is what would the candidates think about having a modern Scandinavian type of government, which is much more decentralised than what we have, much more regional power, and much power in the hands in the power of people who feel close to it?"
Kate Forbes' response
Kate Forbes said: “Let’s start by breaking up Highland Council – you heard it here first. We know in the Highlands and Islands, the approach to social care, as you've mentioned, the approach to local government, the approach to fill in the potholes is going to look different in Portree than it does in Inverness.
“And we need to get back to what we were all about at the party, which was empowering those in local communities to make the right, best decisions for the people that they serve – that is my approach to independence.
“My approach to independence is not rocket science. It is that: those who live in Scotland are best placed to make decisions about affairs that matter to Scotland. And I think that that needs to be the approach that we take to power more generally so we need a more empowered local government, we need to decentralise power further but real empowerment.
“We can't just look at bureaucratic systems and say, ‘right, we're giving Highland Council all these powers and then it stays there’ – it's about getting right out to the front line so it's our doctors and our nurses that are feeding back to say what they want to say change with the NHS, It's our carers that saying this is what we need to see here
"And it is those fundamentally on the frontline who can make the difference.
“You mentioned Scandinavia – Scandinavian countries can do it and my approach here is that we really need to have a serious conversation about how to decentralise power around local government, particularly around ring-fencing, taking way the dictat.
"And that is not enough because Highland Council is massive and actually needs to be our councillors and our teams all the way around in these localities to have real general power – not paper power, real power – to make a difference and we might see more potholes filled as a result.”
