What do we see on the Nordic horizon and what can we learn for Scotland?

 

Some lessons are about policy, others stem from the Nordics' experience, but many are about attitude and outlook.

As an MSP in 2003, I persuaded the Scottish Parliament's Education Committee to learn about the exemplary early years approach of a number of Nordic countries. This formed part of the Early Years Inquiry which subsequently informed the policy of the first SNP Government of 2007, led by Adam Ingram MSP.

Other MSPs visited Sweden but I went to Finland. What struck me among all the practical policies was that the children of Finland were nurtured and encouraged to be independent and self-reliant from the early years.

In Finland, early care and education fed off the child's ever-inquiring mind. Summer care encouraged children as young as eight to go and play and learn independently. The children returned from their adventures for free soup at lunchtime. It reminded me of when I would set out for my own childhood adventures with a piece made by my granny.

So what was this attitude? As I saw it, the Finnish valued, believed and trusted their children, which meant their children had developed a sense of resilience and self-reliance at an early age.

A few weeks later Alex Neil MSP, as Convener of the Enterprise Committee, also went to Finland to look at entrepreneurship in that ever-inventive country. It struck me that much of that innovative self-reliant self-starter culture in business was founded on providing a positive start for their children.

In later years as a minister I have seen that the open, outward looking and tolerant approach so prevalent in Nordic countries is shaped by their relationship with their neighbours and also a sense of the international experience of these nations.

For maritime nations that have relied on the sea in different ways, the cultural connection of people leaving and returning - being able to think of themselves as "being both here and there" at the same time - was brought home at the Viking Congress in Shetland last year, which I addressed.

In recent times the relationship between people and space has influenced city planning and architecture in the Nordic countries - and this is not all one way traffic. For example, during my visit to Denmark in December last year I met David Sim, an architect from my home town of Linlithgow who has worked for many years in Copenhagen at the leading Gehl Architects. And while I was in Finland earlier this year I met Scots-born Douglas Gordon, the international coordinator and architect for city planning in Helsinki, where a visionary and ambitious approach to development has seen the relocation of an entire port 12km to form the Jätkäsaari waterfront. This development has created affordable quality housing, schools and businesses a short distance away from Helsinki city centre and it demonstrates how the Nordic relationship with the land is influencing their city policies.

Our commitment to learning from and sharing our experience with the Nordic countries is not new, but it can and should take different dimensions.

For example, our historic work on EU Northern Periphery Programmes which has shaped policy since the 1980s recently developed into new thinking on the Arctic. I was pleased to open the Arctic Connections Conference this summer, at which five countries, including Norway and Finland, joined us in Glasgow to look at how we can work together on research and other programmes to address issues associated with climate change and remote rural living.

While in Finland in March I saw a map of the world pinned to the wall of a government office. Its view was from the North Pole and Scotland was contained, on the edge, but within that perspective.

So when we think of Nordic values, consider what Scotland can learn from our Nordic neighbours and think about how we might become "more Nordic", it's worth remembering that we are already near neighbours in terms of geography, outlook and culture.