The UK and Scottish cabinets were competing in Aberdeen recently, with the Prime Minister helicoptering out to a rig and both he and the First Minister doing what an industry, sick of the politicians’ inflationary pitches, calls ‘talking up the basin’.
Damagingly – for whatever reason, with no advance notification to his hosts, Alex Salmond chose to swerve a planned talk in the city to Chief Executives in the oil and gas industry.
Former UK Cabinet Minister – and a markedly able one, Labour’s John Reid, was to address the session as well and made a warmly positive impression on those present with a perceptive analysis and a series of pertinent observations.
On the independence versus the union issue, Reid made the point that with able Scots representing Scotland and shaping the UK at Cabinet level in the UK government, as has so often been the case, this is where Scotland has really exercised power – on the world stage, commanding a wide audience.
He asked – to laughter all round – if anyone had ever imagined that Alex Ferguson was English?
His point, of course, was that a highly able Scot, managing one of the best known clubs in the English Premier League and in the international football world, taking it to an almost impossible record of successes at all levels and over more than two decades, is the way to make a mark of nationality of which the world takes note.
No one could argue that a successful manager of a club in the Scottish Premier League could command the same level of awe, respect and authority. The lesson is that the ambition to rule the bigger game and the bigger pond carries much greater impact.
Reid also talked tellingly about the strength in the diversity of an economy, pointing in passing to the Treasury statistic that oil and gas contributes 2% of the UK economy but represents 20% of Scotland’s economy. He questioned why one would wish to see an economy overly dependent on a commodity which is only a blip for 20-30 years, when strategic management of an economy looks to long term structural development?
The First Minister’s unexplained absence from the session – whether or not an explanation was tendered after the event – with a commitment to engage with a high level audience in an industry he regularly makes the core foundation for a potentially sustainable Scotland, was a hefty own goal.
John Reid’s performance, however raises two questions.
Why has the pro-union case not made frontline use of a combative politician whose career saw him perform effectively at cabinet level in a range of portfolios? He was seen as a safe pair of hands in any department and was always a force to be reckoned with.
And could Reid’s known presence on the ticket for this event have been anything to do with Mr Salmond’s sudden absence?
It is hard to think of any other pro-union politician whose ability and famously abrasive stance would give the First Minister such serious pause.
Reid would never be rolled over by anyone, thinks on his feet and has always given as good as he gets. The First Minister may just have shied away, ‘feart’ of a fellow political cagefighter, but one with the sort of pedigree of high level and wide ranging responsibility that adds weight to his punch.
Senior management in this important industry, however, deserved better than a no-show from Scotland’s First Minister.
