PUBLIC life as a national leader, especially one with further career aspirations, would be a doddle if the media didn't highlight awkward situations, writes Ken Mann
PUBLIC life as a national leader, especially one with further career aspirations, would be a doddle if the media didn't highlight awkward situations.
It's a particular pain when they do so at inconvenient moments, such as when talking-up central planks of economic policy.
You wouldn't need to be a member of British Mensa to suppose that a flash of dismay must have occurred in the mind of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon the morning after she fronted a fresh drive aimed at encouraging more Scottish business owners to register as providers of the Living Wage.
As a reminder, that's a minimum of £7.85 per hour for those working outside the burden of London's heavier cost boundaries, or £1.35p more than the standard UK legal minimum. Importantly, it's one of the SNP-led Scottish Government's manifesto foundation blocks.
On Wednesday, The Herald carried a piece focused not so much upon the First Minister's speech when launching her government's Scottish Business Pledge - which she views as a device towards creating new growth, stimulated by the promise of the Living Wage - but rather the apparent dearth of Scottish Government Ministers and MSPs who are registered for this purpose as employers of staff.
Speaking in Edinburgh, Sturgeon was addressing an audience of business people, urging them to take up the now one-year-old voluntary Living Wage accreditation scheme, at about the same time that it emerged from anti-poverty campaigners that a paltry seven backbench MSPs had registered. Only three of them are SNP members, the others showing an even split between Labour and Liberal-Democrat.
As I write, there is no record of the First Minister being accredited. MSPs employ only small numbers of staff, it's true, but collectively recruit hundreds - equivalent to the headcount of a larger SME business.
Signing-up is deemed important in order to show commitment as an employer. Arguably, there are spin-off benefits in day to day trading.
Customers may be more likely to do business with such suppliers upon seeing the campaign's logo, the Living Wage Employer Mark, which can be used by accredited firms on stationary and web material.
Before I go on, it's worth mentioning that the jungle drums of general Scottish Parliament muttering from all parties suggest that most MSPs probably do pay their staff the Living Wage or above. Staff members can come under a number of headings - from researchers to administrators and constituency assistants.
I think it's also worthy of note that the market rate for some of these tasks will in any case fall above the Living Wage threshold.You could therefore argue that MSPs have no pressing specific need be become accredited. But matters of moment dictate otherwise, and that's where members of the Scottish Parliament - and particularly SNP members - need to be reminded of their party platform or their rightful duty to society.
If you shout loud and long in politics, someone will quickly check the relevant credentials. On one level it's the most basic PR opportunity missed, while on another it's an elementary gaffe. In between those parameters, this cloudy state of affairs invites other uncomfortable questions.
Flying the flag, walking the talk, standing up to be counted for what's right - call it what you will, but if those who have been elected by their constituents to represent all common interests don't actively promote the principle of minimum fair pay in light of the cost of living, then who should?
In truth, I can think of no politician who is unaware of the potential for the wrong message to be received by the voting population when duly amplified by media commentators.
For SNP members of the Scottish house, there is absolutely no ambiguity here; it's the right thing to do, your party publicly demonises those who won't (rather than can't) set a higher pay bar, and opposition members who have registered can have a field day at your expense. Planning for the inevitable has been ignored. For heaven sake, it's a no brainer - duh!
There are currently 200 accredited employers in Scotland. The Scottish Living Wage Campaign - describing itself as a coalition of poverty activists, trade unions, faith groups and voluntary organisations with the aim of raising awareness and support for the Living Wage in Scotland - is supported in a practical sense by the Poverty Alliance, which offers administration capacity.
Co-Chair of the campaign and Director of Poverty Alliance, Peter Kelly, admits: "The launch of the Scottish Business Pledge is an important step forward in helping to create that fairer economy. We hope that employers signing up to the pledge will show the way for others across Scotland." Absolutely, but surely that should start with the Ministers who have sought such high profile association with this serious, and vote-catching, topic?
Clearly the First Minister and her team should have seen the need to impose a mandatory registration.
That she/they did not is more than an oversight and a disappointment after a polished General Election performance.
Sturgeon's first year job appraisal won't be compromised by this clanger, but I doubt if it is the type of error likely to be made by global leaders and role models for effectiveness like Angela Merkel or Hillary Clinton, respectively rated as Forbes Magazine's first and second most powerful women in the world.
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