Last week I stood up in Parliament for the first time since the general election, and spoke from the third-party frontbench for the first time in 14 years. It was a privilege to speak for my party and my Northern Isles constituency – but it was also, I hope, the start of a far more productive era for our country. People in Scotland have voted decisively against the SNP’s politics of nationalist grievance – and for representation which is constructive, both in government and in opposition.
After years of SNP protest and posturing, voters instead want practical results for our communities. Advertisement Advertisement Sign up to our Opinion newsletter Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. For the better part of a decade, Scottish politics was dominated by one dividing line.
Every political question – on our taxes, on our infrastructure, on our place in the world – was distorted by the kaleidoscopic lens of nationalism. With the SNP driving the narrative as the third party in Westminster, everything came back to independence. Read More Three lessons Scottish Tories must quickly learn from Labour – or face oblivion Why the SNP and Stephen Flynn have been 'silenced' with no question at Prime Minister's Questions John Swinney should always remember climate change helped depose his predecessor, Humza Yousaf SNP accuses Labour of 'failing first major test in Government' as party defies calls to scrap two-child benefit cap Policy questions were judged not by right or wrong, practicality or principle, but by their impact on the horse race between Yes and No.
Good governance for the people of Scotland – and the UK as a whole – suffered as a result. Fine political talents amongst the SNP were wasted in those years. There were many on their benches who could have been a force for good and improved lives in Scotland, whether people like Chris Stephens with his interest in workers’ rights, or Joanna Cherry on the international rule of law.
Instead, their political time, and the privilege that comes from being the third party in Parliament, was frittered away on the fruitless, toxic stalemate over independence. No longer. For the first time in a decade, there is a diverse Scottish contingent on both sides of the House of Commons, in place of the previous one-note nationalist dominance.
We are there to represent Scotland in all its diversity and all its different needs – and to bring politics back to the issues which matter to people in their daily lives. For the first time in a decade, Scottish politicians in government and in opposition can lead the way on issues from energy to tax to industrial strategy for their own merits, and for the benefit of Scotland and the UK as a whole. There will be issues on which our parties can agree and there will be those on which we must disagree.
That is the nature of politics. What we can say, however, is that those disagreements will hang on policy and principle rather than on the constitution. When we disagree with the Labour government over the two-child limit on Universal Credit, or their efforts on Gaza, we will do so for the issue itself – not as a contorted excuse to call for independence yet again.
That is how we get politics back to the interests and the benefit of the people who elected us. The debate has moved on from narrow nationalism – now it must be about the policies which can help people in Scotland and across the United Kingdom. As new voices stand up in Parliament for our diverse communities, the SNP’s loss of its previous status as the third Westminster party will be Scotland’s gain.
Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland Comments Want to join the conversation? Please register or log in to comment on this article..
