Meeting of the Parliament 01 April 2015
Scotland requires the social and economic powers that are necessary to reflect the people of Scotland’s needs and preferences and to enable the people of Scotland to build on the strong economic foundations that we have and to tackle some of the long-standing issues and challenges that our society faces and which the UK system has so far failed to enable us to address. For example, there is persistent inequality in our society, and the efforts of the Scottish Government—and our predecessors—to tackle that issue, on which we had made progress for a number of years, are being halted by the UK Government’s policy choices, which are placing burdens on some of the poorest in our society.
That one example illustrates why we have to do something different. Mr Brown argued that we should continue with the status quo and do nothing to tackle or interrupt some of the deep-seated problems that trouble many of us in our society. However, the Scottish Government wants to do something about them; indeed, that was at the heart of our initiative around last September’s referendum. In the referendum’s aftermath, we are seeking an opportunity to shape a better future by obtaining the powers that would enable Scotland to build a stronger and more productive economy and deliver a level of economic performance that would mean that we could reinvest in the delivery of public services.