July 1st 1999 marked the return of a Scottish parliament after almost 300 years. For most of its history, Scotland was an independent country, a separate European nation with its own economy, foreign policy, monarchy and armed forces. After the Act of Union in 1707, Scotland became part of Great Britain, but a demand for self-government has existed ever since, with the campaign for devolution gaining momentum in the 1980s across the political spectrum.
Proportional representation has led to a diversity of political parties being represented in the Scottish Parliament, including the Socialists, Nationalists and Greens. The current Scottish Executive (i.e. the devolved Scottish government) is a coalition between the Scottish Labour Party and Scottish Liberal Democrat Party. The Executive is led by a First Minister, currently Jack McConnell, who is nominated by the Parliament and in turn appoints the other Scottish Ministers in his Cabinet.
The Scottish Parliament does not have a lot of power: it has no powers over defence or international trade, for example. It cannot vote to get rid of Trident or to introduce import tax regimes that would harm corporate interests. Its main powers cover areas such as health, education, justice and rural affairs. Nevertheless, corporate lobbyists still find it worthwhile to swarm around the Scottish Parliament in an attempt to secure meetings with MSPs, to influence Scottish public spending in their favour and to keep polluting Scotland without major penalties. In 1999, the Scottish Executive was rocked by the 'Lobbygate' scandal. A reporter for the Observer, posing as a representative of principally American investors, gained the assurance of public relations firm, Beattie Media, that they could arrange access to senior government figures to discuss PFI projects. Jack McConnell had been employed by Beattie Media to help set up its lobbying arm before entering the Scottish Parliament and his PA was an ex-member of Beattie's staff. The company's lobbyists claimed to be able to put appointments in his diary through her. Another of Beattie's lobbyists was Kevin Reid, son of Secretary of State, John Reid.
The incestuous relationships between the Scottish Parliament and corporations extends beyond external lobbying. Take the corporate swamping of cross party policy discussion groups that meet within the Scottish Parliament. The 'Oil and Gas group', alongside 17 MSPs, includes sixteen industry lobbyists, two representatives from Scottish Enterprise (the government agency promoting Scottish business), one from Aberdeen city council and two from government-funded Energywatch – the group contains no representatives from citizen's organisations.
The Scottish Parliament has been mired in controversy around the awarding of the multi-million pound contracts for Scotland's new Holyrood parliament. The work, now said to cost around £431m, has run several hundred million pounds over budget. In the tendering process, it remains unexplained why civil servants went for a bid by construction firm Bovis which was around £1.5m higher than the lowest bid, and arguably the highest bid of all. Bovis was also allowed to change the basis of its tender after the final bids had been submitted, an opportunity the other bidders were denied.
Meanwhile McAlpine, which saw its bid rejected, has pledged to sue Parliament for millions of pounds in damages over an alleged breach of European rules in awarding the contract. With the 60 or so other contractors also likely to sue, even more money is likely to flow from public funds to big business. The two main civil servants implicated in the questionable conduct of the project are still in high-level posts. The Scottish Executive has seen further controversy over its dependence on corporations. Since its creation, business representatives have had access as secondees to the Executive and civil servants have been seconded outwards to the private sector. Companies involved include the biggest Scottish and transnational corporations, with inward secondments from ScottishPower, Stagecoach, Ernst and Young and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and outward to Lloyds TSB Foundation, ScottishPower and Scottish and Newcastle.
First Minister Jack McConnell himself has faced numerous allegations of corporate sleaze and spin, from accepting gold cuff-links from fish farm baron Marine Harvest, to his close relationship with BBC newscaster, Kirsty Wark, with allegations that he hindered an official inquiry into her production company after it received large amounts of money from the Scottish Executive, and that he twice spent Christmas at her Majorcan villa without declaring it in the MSPs' register of interests. In 2004, McConnell faced sleaze allegations after it emerged that the company given the £1.75bn contract to run Scotland's rail services, FirstGroup, had employed two former spin doctors for the Scottish Labour party as lobbyists. The lobbying company, Greenhaus Public Communication, which denies there was any impropriety in the awarding of the contract, was founded by Chris Winslow, a former special advisor to Donald Dewar, the previous First Minister. Nicol Stephen, the transport minister, was also a consultant for FirstGroup before becoming an MSP. Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Enterprise is Scotland's main economic development agency, funded by the Scottish Executive. Its new chair, and Scotland's highest paid quangocrat, is Jack Perry, former head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in Scotland. Like his predecessor, Robert Crawford, Perry has also held a senior position at Ernst and Young. Scottish Enterprise has been accused of having a love affair with biotechnology. This accusation doesn't seem totally unfounded considering that its International Advisory Group includes Hugh Grant, the President and CEO of Monsanto; the chief executive of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca,and the senior vice-president of Genzyme Corporation biotechnology and pharmaceutical company. At the end of the 1990s, Scottish Enterprise launched a Framework for Action, which committed the Scottish tax payer to injecting nearly £64 million between 2000 and 2004 into the development of 'biotech customers'.
Meanwhile McAlpine, which saw its bid rejected, has pledged to sue Parliament for millions of pounds in damages over an alleged breach of European rules in awarding the contract. With the 60 or so other contractors also likely to sue, even more money is likely to flow from public funds to big business. The two main civil servants implicated in the questionable conduct of the project are still in high-level posts. The Scottish Executive has seen further controversy over its dependence on corporations. Since its creation, business representatives have had access as secondees to the Executive and civil servants have been seconded outwards to the private sector. Companies involved include the biggest Scottish and transnational corporations, with inward secondments from ScottishPower, Stagecoach, Ernst and Young and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and outward to Lloyds TSB Foundation, ScottishPower and Scottish and Newcastle.
First Minister Jack McConnell himself has faced numerous allegations of corporate sleaze and spin, from accepting gold cuff-links from fish farm baron Marine Harvest, to his close relationship with BBC newscaster, Kirsty Wark, with allegations that he hindered an official inquiry into her production company after it received large amounts of money from the Scottish Executive, and that he twice spent Christmas at her Majorcan villa without declaring it in the MSPs' register of interests. In 2004, McConnell faced sleaze allegations after it emerged that the company given the £1.75bn contract to run Scotland's rail services, FirstGroup, had employed two former spin doctors for the Scottish Labour party as lobbyists. The lobbying company, Greenhaus Public Communication, which denies there was any impropriety in the awarding of the contract, was founded by Chris Winslow, a former special advisor to Donald Dewar, the previous First Minister. Nicol Stephen, the transport minister, was also a consultant for FirstGroup before becoming an MSP. Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Enterprise is Scotland's main economic development agency, funded by the Scottish Executive. Its new chair, and Scotland's highest paid quangocrat, is Jack Perry, former head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in Scotland. Like his predecessor, Robert Crawford, Perry has also held a senior position at Ernst and Young. Scottish Enterprise has been accused of having a love affair with biotechnology. This accusation doesn't seem totally unfounded considering that its International Advisory Group includes Hugh Grant, the President and CEO of Monsanto; the chief executive of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca,and the senior vice-president of Genzyme Corporation biotechnology and pharmaceutical company. At the end of the 1990s, Scottish Enterprise launched a Framework for Action, which committed the Scottish tax payer to injecting nearly £64 million between 2000 and 2004 into the development of 'biotech customers'.