Time for some academic transparency?

Profs were once unworldly, but that was long ago

The Centre for Public Policy for the Regions gets a lot of attention in the Scottish media. Its tousle haired economist John McLaren is almost as familiar to viewers of Newsnight Scotland as Gordon Brewer himself. This weekend its report on the Scottish government's spending priorities in the budget got considerable attention.

The report suggested that the SNP was wrong to ring-fence health spending - just after the party launched its 2011 camapign with this very pledge. It also cast doubt on the SNP government's ability to fund big infrastructural projects using the non-profit mechanism they have created to replace PFI/PPP. This also echoed the attacks of the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats.

So is this report a dispassionate piece of analysis by lofty academics who are above the dirty business of politics? Or should we should look again at the CPPR and ask how non-aligned some of its people really are. John McLaren, for example, was once an adviser to the Labour First Minister Donald Dewar - not something that is flagged up on television.

But it is the background of Jo Armstrong, McLaren's co-author of the weekend paper on Scottish public spending, that concerns me much more. Ms Armstrong was an adviser to another Labour First Minister, Jack McConnell. She is also a controversial figure with what many believe are strong ideological views in favour of liberalising public services. She has advocated the privatisation of Scottish Water. She has associations with those who have most to gain from a return to PFI/PPP - the cost of which has multiplied and delivered huge profits to banks and business consultants. She was involved in the establishment of the Glasgow Housing Association, an  organisation backed by the banks, who were given the city's entire housing stock but had the debt for that stock completely written off.

 I am indebted to an online directory called Powerbase, which attempts to chart the connections between lobbying/academia/consultancy/think tankery and politics.

Here is part of their fascinating entry on Jo Armstrong:

"Jo Armstrong has also involved herself in other areas of concern to the Scottish people. For instance the area of Public Private Partnerships (PPP'S) is one that she has written on. She appears to be a proponent of PPP despite evidence that they are a bad deal for the people of Scotland see refs below ^{[15] [16] [17] [18] [19]}.

She herself says that she has had,

'Key roles:

• advising on the development of partnerships and projects
• ensuring financial viability & acceptability to the private sector
• assuring value for money & public sector affordability'.

This advice has been given to both the Scottish Executive and the Royal Bank of Scotland; one of the main beneficiaries of PPP's. Her relationship with the Royal Bank of Scotland encompassed,

'The provision of analysis and advice in support of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Structured Finance deals covering

• PFI/PPPs for UK hospitals, roads, prisons and housing
• gas and coal-fired power projects worldwide
• oil, mineral and petrochemical installations world-wide
• leisure and hotel projects in the US and the UK' ^[20].

Despite this business relationship with the Royal Bank she also took on an, 'an initial review of the Scottish Executive’s experience of, and role in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Scotland reporting to the Scottish Cabinet through the Minister for Finance' ^[21]. "

Jo Armstrong, has also worked for the Fraser of Allander Institute, another academic organisation that appears to employ a disproportionate number of folk of a Scottish Labour persuasion...Now I am not saying that Ms Armstrong has done anything wrong. But I do believe that anyone presented with her work has a right to view it in the wider context of her career.

There is considerable personnel cross over between the Fraser of Allander, the CPPR, and the Calman Commission on Scottish Devolution which was set up by the unionist parties to block moves to give Scotland more control of her own resources and economic decision making. The Calman Commission report forms the basis of the Scotland Bill, currently going through Westminster which the Scottish Government says would have resulted in Scotland losing £8bn in the first ten years of devolution.

For Example:

Jim Gallagher, the former civil servant who is believed to have written the Calman report and who has been appointed as expert adviser to the Holyrood Scotland Bill Committe is listed as an associate with the CPPR.

Wendy Alexander, who had the idea for the Calman Commission while Labour's leader in Holyrood and who now chairs The Scotland Bill committee has worked for the Fraser of Allander. As a minister in a previous Labour administration she pushed through the establishment  Glasgow Housing Association that Jo Armstrong worked on too

Brian Ashcroft, Wendy Alexander's husband, is a member of the CPPR and Fraser of Allander.

Julia Darby and Peter McGregor of the CPPR were two of six economists who signed a letter in The Scotsman yesterday claiming fiscal autonomy would not help the Scottish economy.

Julia Darby was also on the Calman expert group.

Of other letter signers Anton Muscatelli, Clemens Fuest and David Ulph were also members of the hand-picked expert group.

David Ulph is also an expert adviser to the Scotland Bill committee at Holyrood. Does he not believe that a conflict of interest might arise? How can he offer supposedly impartial advice on Scotland's fiscal future when his colours are nailed so firmly to the mast? A look at Ulph's CV also reveals that he was employed by HMRC until 2006. The Treasury and HMRC are among the strongest opponents of any move that decentralises power away from them.

I am sure there are many other academics whose impartiality is not perhaps as straightforward as is presented to the wider public. I am not saying that academics should not have political views - that would clearly be absurd. But we should at least know their background and their associates when listening to their contributions. (Just as we should know the backgrounds of journalists - I recently became an SNP candidate).  So Professors Andrew Hughes Hallett and Drew Scott were recently attacked by Wendy Alexander's committee because their research had been used by the SNP government to support the case for fiscal power. Contrast the way they were treated with this report in The Telegraph on evidence given at the same time by Iain McLean, of Oxford University, to the same committee. Professor McLean, another member of the Calman expert group, is not an economist but was allowed to talk at length on how the SNP's plans (not part of the committee's remit) would "substantially increase the risk of a financial black hole appearing". For good measure he defended the Scotland Bill plans not to include corporation tax and national insurance and dismissed oil revenues as "too volatile."

Nowhere in the report does it explain that Professor McLean is a very good friend to Labour and was a councillor in Oxford and Tyneside. (Though Professor McLean is himself open about this on his CV) Nor does any report on Prof McLean's evidence to the committee explain that Jim Gallagher (its expert adviser remember) has recently joined Prof McLean at Nuffield College.  I'm a told Gallagher found a welcome there after leaving the civil service shortly after the change of government last May.

Lastly, looking at the CVs of the economists on the CPPR, it is clear that "regional economics" is a bulging academic area. Many have moved from the regions of England, where they have developed their expertise. I don't think of Scotland as a region...but perhaps it suits others very well for it to be treated as such.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a few examples:

Jim

NOTE: In the interests of transparency, I am an SNP candidate for the South of Scotland. But you probably knew that already. I also write for The Scotsman. My column will appear on Tuesday from now on. Tomorrow it looks some more at the economic choices on offer to Scotland and in particular how to fund capital spending.

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Comments

[Chic McGregor]

As strange as such behaviour is for those of us with normal ethical standards to understand, the position for those unencumbered by any such sense of decency is very simple and straightforward.

Support for the British Union, especially Labour = The single best career move possible in Scotland.

By the simple expediency of abandoning any democratic instincts which might otherwise lead them to allow the electorate access to the truth then allow them to make their own mind up, they make themselves candidates for sinecured positions, positions often well above their level of competency.

And because of the basic level of intellect required of them to comport themselves in those positions, even though in many cases it is little more than the ability to raise themselves up on their hind legs, I find it impossible to believe that any of them do this without some awareness of the evil inherent in their acts.

I'm afraid the term 'Academic Freedom' in Scotland, has for some time now, been consigned to the same laughing ground as 'Press Freedom'.

[EUSNA]

I'm more concerned with how Adam Hart Davis seems not to have aged in all the time between the date of this picture (?1940s) and today. Seriously worrying.

[barontorc]

Dear Joan - be prepared to be called "the Missus McCarthy" of US infamy - which is and was utter and extremely dangerous tosh for the many who didn't toe the line - the wild dogs are straining at the leash as we post!

What a nest of vipers we have to contend with to get democracy working in a free Scotland!

[Am Firinn]

To think that the Hungarian Prime Minister has had to rewrite the press laws in his own image and likeness, at the cost of unease all over Europe, to achieve less than Labour gets for free here!

[ianbeag]

Well done Joan! Your earlier expose into the political affiliations of BBC Scotland's staffers and their Labour connections opened many eyes across Scotland and explained much about the biased editorial line from Pacific Quay.
Today's piece lifts a corner of the veil covering the workings much closer to the heart of government in Scotland. Daily we read of the influence of Oxbridge and England's public schools on Westminster's ruling elite. It looks like Labour's tentacles extend even deeper into public life in Scotland than most people imagined. I suspect than a forensic examination of the whole Quango system in Scotland and it's underlying political patronage would be very illuminating indeed.

[Iain]

Hi Joan

Thanks for another excellent and informative article as it highlights the importance to question who’s interests these ‘experts’ are actually representing.

I think most people just want balanced views so that they can consider what best for them and the future of Scotland. I don’t want to hear what I’m supposed to believe I want to hear what needs to be questioned. Sadly, the scrutiny of the Scotland Bill has failed miserably in this respect and I fear that it will damage the Parliament.

By the way, I hope you get elected into the Parliament, we need people of your calibre to keep things moving forward.

NOTE: I am not a member of the SNP just a normal punter who wants the best for Scotland.

[Doug Daniel]

Unbelievable. Well, almost. Academics, think tanks, politicians and the media, all conspiring together to stop progress being made in Scotland. The very people who should be informing the public of the true state of affairs in our country are all hell-bent on making sure people don't realise what a bum deal we get from the Union.

I just wonder if the last days before independence finally arrives will see fighter jets searing through Scottish skies, to try and remind the people who (Westminster) is still in charge?

[Paul Wheelhouse]

Well said, Joan. One must also consider the political links of Peter Jones (married to Labour MSP, Rhona Brankin) who regularly appears on Newsnicht.

There is still something verging on a pro-Labour oligarchy among the talking heads employed by the BBC to talk down Scotland on a regular basis.

Alf Young has had a lot of airtime in recent years too, courtesy of Newsnicht. As always he is never a ray of sunshine when discussing the Scottish Government's policies.....