Brian Leishman

The Budget is predicated on inspiring hope and building a fairer, more equal society. I welcome and support that. Crucially, to deliver that, we need to understand and learn from the past. After world war one, the country became more inward-looking. Adopting the economics of austerity led to low growth, mass unemployment, the general strike and the great depression. Two decades later, we had another war, but after world war two, the Labour Government really did grasp the politics and the economics of hope. We created a social security system, built the NHS, and nationalised our mines, steel, railways and even the Bank of England, all as we emerged from the ravages of a war in which towns and cities were bombed and half a million of our people died. We do not even need to look as far back as that to see the politics of hope in action. The 1974 Labour party manifesto said that it would tackle the severe economic problems of the day with democratic socialist policies, the aim being to secure “a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of wealth and power in favour of working people and their families.” Five decades on, we again need that degree of ambition. We live in significant times. The most terrifying set of questions we have in this place is on defence. We constantly hear, “We’ve got to get to 5%. Let’s cut welfare to do it. Let’s issue war bonds. Let’s get ready for war—we’re already at war.” Among the clamour for increased defence spending and defence of our way of life, it does not often get mentioned that nearly 4 million people use food banks, and that we have 14.5 million people living in food insecurity. The “Be Ready” campaign encourages people to stockpile three days-worth of non-perishable food; how do we think people living in food insecurity will manage that? Where on their list of priorities is buying a power bank or a wind-up radio, when they are debating whether to put their heating on or to eat a meal? Constituents regularly tell me that there is too much month at the end of their money; doctors tell me how under-resourced the health service is; teachers tell me that kids are turning up to school exhausted from hunger; and community groups and churches across Alloa and Grangemouth tell me that they are starting to make warm spaces available again as we head into winter, so when politicians and media commentators talk about people making sacrifices, I find it insulting. In Clackmannanshire, residents are expected to have 55 years of good health, making it one of the regions of Scotland with lower healthy life expectancy. In Grangemouth, people generally die younger than in the Falkirk council area, and before the Scottish national average. This Budget has committed billions more to military spending that will inevitably go to private capital firms and arms manufacturers; all the while, the cost of living crisis rages on, and public services are still under the most immense pressure. The political choice we face is between weapons and war, and wages and welfare. We should bear that in mind, as well as the 14.5 million people who are hungry while we talk about hope.