Who shapes the policies that our governments implement? This is one of the questions raised by the investigation “Who runs Scotland?” published this week in the National’s sister paper the Herald. Working with Ferret Scotland they claim that industry and big business dominate access to the UK Government’s Scotland Office Ministers while professional lobbyists, including former politicians, advisors and a former minister have ready access to Scottish Government representatives, whom they seek to influence on behalf of clients including business, charity and industry bodies. 

Of course, there is nothing wrong in this if it’s done transparently, but does it make for better policy making? Without proper scrutiny and due process there is a risk of policy capture – meaning that decision making in a particular policy area is directed towards the interests of specific groups without due consideration for the potential impact on other groups and the wider population. At Westminster some of the think tanks with the greatest influence on the Tory Government’s policy agenda are ruthless organisations dominated by right wing free marketeers and libertarians who are secretive about their funding. This does not make for a healthy democracy. 

It’s been clear from the outset of the current PM’s term in office that this is a Tory Government which abhors scrutiny. Shortly after he took office, he tried to shut parliament down completely because he was finding its scrutiny of the Brexit process tiresome. It took litigation to restore parliament to its rightful role. 

An unlawfully prorogued parliament is dangerous for democracy but so is a supine one.  Because of the UK Government’s artificially inflated majority and its fear of due process and meaningful scrutiny, Westminster is a sad shell of its former self. Regulations impinging on our basic liberties during the Covid crisis have been rushed through with the minimum of debate. And it’s not just urgent Covid-related legislation that is treated in such a cursory way.

With rich irony, yesterday the House of Commons held a debate to mark Windrush day just as another immigration scandal threatens to unfold. On Wednesday the deadline for EU Nationals to apply for Settled Status in the UK passed amidst worries that thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands had missed it. It is important for their sake as well as for the sake of the wider Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community that we learn from the wrongful detention, deportation and denial of legal rights suffered by so many of the Windrush generation and their descendants. 

On a visit to Redhall Primary School in my constituency before lockdown I was moved by a class of small children who had been asked to imagine what they would bring with them in a wee rucksack if they had to leave their home like so many child refugees across the world. Many of us have in our minds some concept of the horrendous situation faced by Syrian Refugees from the images on our TV screens during the long civil war which started in 2011. But it is hard for us to truly imagine the horror of the personal suffering and the day-to-day loss of everything which makes a life worthwhile and not simply a daily struggle for survival. The now closed Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (SVPRS) was launched in 2014. The UK Government worked with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify those most at risk and to bring them to the UK, including people requiring urgent medical treatment, survivors of violence and torture, and women and children at risk.