Gerry Hassan: Not social justice paradise we claim

Teachers will receive the packs from Better Together. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

THERE was a revealing exchange on Newsnight Scotland this week which got to the heart of the matter of the substance (or lack of) in much of the independence debate.

Asked to elucidate on what social justice measures an independent Scotland could advance, SNP MSP Kenny Gibson first stuttered and then at the second attempt offered as a contribution, the abolition of the bedroom tax. Then it was Labour MSP Ken Macintosh’s chance to show his mettle on social justice and what his party would do and he equally offered no real specifics, just generalisations.

Social justice is what part of Scotland prides itself on. How many Labour and SNP politicians and media commentators have you heard over the years congratulate themselves on our supposedly different, superior, egalitarian values?

Yet the best Kenny Gibson could offer on social justice was literally the defence of the status quo pre-April 2013. Ken Macintosh was no better. With 20-plus years in the Scottish Parliament and public life between them, this reveals the threadbare nature of much of our debate.

Social justice is a kind of New Labour term; before people used to talk about equality. Now in the retreat from centre-left possibilities the mantra of politicians – and particularly Westminster coalition ones – is to use that unthreatening word, fairness.

For all Scotland’s guid conceit of itself, no meaningful definition of social justice is ever fully developed – philosophically, politically or in everyday language. Labour and the SNP have not felt the need to define it. Labour has acted as if it owned the term (like the NHS); the SNP has long thought its rejection of London rule enough to prove its progressive credentials.