Plane Stupid Scotland: Holyrood is undermining democracy

By Anonymous on 14/04/2008
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PS Scotland Holyrood 2

Double whammy! With two consultations ending this April, Scottish Minister John Swinney is pulling off a fabulously nefarious coup. Two proposed reforms - one to planning, one to climate change - will massively increase emissions, cutting democracy out of the deal. A whole generation of Scotland's development is being removed from public debate.

The planning reforms and climate change laws look like very different beasts, but both will have the same impact - increased emissions. The National Planning Framework, alongside the Planning Scotland Act 2006, gives Government central control over planning. The Climate Change Bill takes the most important thing we need to plan for –- control of emissions -– and gifts it to the big polluters. One centralises government, the other decentralises - but both lock citizens out of politics.

The National Planning Framework is the final piece of a misguided reform process, which missed the chance to make economic development work better for Scotland. Its purpose should have been to increase community participation and scrutiny. Instead it cuts Scottish citizens right out of decision making. Big projects get special status as 'National Developments' even before they are properly and accountably assessed. From then on they are untouchable. Any inquiries have to restrict themselves to "the colour of chimneys and the height of security fences". Why, whether, and when are taboo.

First in line for National Development status:

  • Airport expansion: Edinburgh & Glasgow
  • Shipping freight expansions: Graingemouth, Rosyth, Scapa Flow.
  • New Forth bridge
  • The Beauly-Denny power line
  • 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games development.

Meanwhile the Climate Change Bill proposals are 93 pages of excuses for cowardly inaction. There is nothing in which tries to meet this nebulous 80% target. Holyrood is just like Westminster –- too scared to make reductions mandatory.

Instead they propose to incorporate almost all Scottish emissions into carbon trading schemes - the least efficient emissions reduction strategy around. Carbon trading was dreamed up as a brilliant excuse not to legislate for reductions: big business has persuaded everyone that the invisible hand of the carbon market will only work if emissions are completely unregulated. Only Governments and the insanely gullible fall for this. Business buys the right to screw the planet over and the public get completely disenfranchised into the bargain.

Spot the pattern? The NPF is a big blank cheque for the Government's dirty development agenda and their big cosy with multinationals; the Climate Change Bill gives companies the right to keep on polluting.

That twisted logic behind it is, of course, economic growth. Scotland is a small country in a big bad century, facing climatic changes and a shift in economic power to Asia. On the one hand this makes Governments panicky about big projects with high stakes. On the other hand it makes them go all wide-eyed and weak-kneed around the big money and big confidence of big business.

But signing away power to big business, and signing the planetary death warrant that is unregulated aviation, is no way to protect our future. We need to junk this blinkered worship of economic growth. If there's anything we can learn from the Blair and Thatcher years, it is that government by big business wreaks havoc on social inequalities, the environment, and our economy.

It is bizarre and wrong-headed to think that democracy makes for bad planning and administration. Sadly Holyrood displays little confidence in the citizens it governs.