The main reason for this morning’s post is for James, Jeff and Malc to jointly and officially welcome Kate (aka The Burd) onto the Better Nation team. We have always wanted this blog to be as outward-looking and as inclusive as possible, and part and parcel with that is an openness to increase our number of editors as time rolls on. We started with three and it surely won’t stop at four. Aside from the regular content that we will continue to do our best to cobble together, we will always welcome guest posts to boost debate further, particularly now that we have the changed conditions at the Scottish Parliament.  So if you are interested in guesting, do get in touch. We hope you’ll agree that the blog is all the better for the myriad of voices we’ve featured recently.

The key question for this blog is this: does a majority SNP Government make for a Better Nation? That remains to be seen, but there is perhaps some irony in the fact that Thursday’s 2011 election result was delivered simultaneously with a No vote to AV, as if Scotland was looking at its political options, knew that Alex Salmond was the only show in town for FM, that it was fed up with radical measures being held up for the sake of political opportunism, and then acted accordingly.

Minimum pricing, council tax freezes and independence referendums brought in unobstructed may be a good thing (from a nationalist perspective) but five uncompromising SNP budgets may bring problems. If Scotland benefited from the other Holyrood parties debating budget proposals then, by extension, Scotland will arguably be poorer from one party having the power to push through what it wants. On environmental credentials and despite the aim of 100% renewables by 2020 (with coal and nuclear still operational for export), it is worth being sceptical of the intentions of a party that had to be forced to keep its own climate change targets and remains intent on coal burning and road building. However, throughout 2011-16, we will always endeavour to give credit for good ideas and criticise when we think necessary.

Independence is of course the issue that has drawn the most scrutiny and it is true that Scotland has a momentous debate, and vote, on its future in the coming years but with 2015 already pencilled in for that decision, there is much for the new Government to do within the current devolved structure.

This is a big moment for Scotland and the SNP, a big party with big ambitions, big personalities and clear intentions that has taken both of the nation’s reins. It’s also clear that there are serious challenges for the other parties, especially Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens. It is a good thing then that we at Better Nation have expanded our team to try to make sense of it all.

We are therefore delighted that Kate will be an equal partner and regular contributor to the Better Nation adventure. Welcome aboard!

Just because something is so patently a good idea and has been outstanding for such a ridiculous length of time, it doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t congratulate and indeed thank the person who rights that earlier wrong.

Therefore step forward Nick Clegg and take your bow for seeking to replace maternal leave with parental leave whereby either parent can take the ten months paid leave to look after their newborn child and give it the best start in life.

This isn’t the end of the story for parental leave of course – what about cohabiting couples who aren’t married? Should they have access? Should that exclude/include same sex couples? (and there’s no reason why they should be excluded). Should an employee have to work for 6 months/1 year/2 years before they are entitled to the benefit? Plenty of babyfood for thought remains.

However, the positives should be focussed on.

I can’t reference it, but I do recall reading that clear evidence exists that fathers who take extended leave to be with their newborn child during their formative years tend to stick around longer and the benefits that parental leave will mean for equality and treatment of females in the workplace are obvious. Any discrimination against employees ‘of child-bearing age’ (whatever that means these days) can now be applied equally across both the sexes rather than just against females.

The gender inequality to one side, there is something quite pleasing about the three party leaders (four if one includes Gordon Brown) all being fathers of young children and all having real life experience and an emotional investment in this issue. The ‘tone at the top’ can do wonders to change attitudes across a country, and goodness knows that large parts of this country needs attitudes to change, so it is gratifying to see Ed Miliband take his full paternity leave and to know that David Cameron makes sure he does the weekly shopping. We might need a few football stars to publicly do the same to get the message across more fully but political leaders are doing their bit and, amidst the cynicism and snide remarks, they deserve praise for that.

Politically speaking, this is clearly Nick Clegg’s policy and it is through these announcements that Lib Dem redemption may yet be realised. This won’t be the end of the ‘easy wins’ that the coalition junior partners will have accrued for the years ahead in return for assisting the Conservatives so resolutely and, like this policy, it should pay off. Labour had 13 years to act on parental leave and only started to far too late, the Conservatives (rightly or wrongly) are not typically associated with fuzzy, family friendly policies and the Greens, long onboard with these proposals and in many ways leading the way, simply do not get the press that would suitably reward them. This is cash cow territory for Lib Dem fortunes.

Stable families are the bedrock of society and I have seen many a father come back to work after a paltry two weeks of leave (one of which is unpaid) barely able to keep their eyes open.

With this flexibility in the benefits system, young families can thrive and business will benefit through reduced discrimination and an appreciative, energised workforce.

No complaints from me on this one – I agree with Nick.

Welcome to Better Nation, our new Scottish blog, built on four things its editors share: a love of ideas, an essential optimism, an anoraky obsession with politics, and a particular interest in the nation of Scotland – as it has been, as it stands now, and its future prospects.

The title comes from Dennis Leigh, famously quoted by Alasdair Gray (and attributed to Gray on the walls of Holyrood itself): “Work as if you lived in the early days of a better nation“. The three of us believe devolution has been a pretty successful endeavour thus far, but that the current constitutional arrangements are unlikely to be the final settled will of the Scottish people.

As a result, it is already a better nation than it was when the Vigil camped out under Calton Hill, but even the most cursory glance around Scotland shows continued poverty, movement away from sustainability, a business sector hardly thriving, a nervous public sector, stretched voluntary organisations and shortcomings in our democracy.

Our MPs and MSPs all seek to improve Scotland in the way they each best see fit, no matter what colour of party flag they wave or particular leader they serve under. However, for a country of our size, that is a daunting task, so this blog will aim to be, at worst, constructive criticism of their exploits, and, at best, a show of support for our politicians from interested Scots. Most in politics do have a genuine desire to improve how their country runs, and we will try to give a fair wind to their intentions, even when we have to disagree profoundly with their methods.

Independence for Scotland will, of course, be considered in various ways and at fairly regular intervals. This blog ain’t no Calman Commission where ideas are excluded before the exercise begins but it is also no National Conversation where an answer is pencilled in before research and analysis is conducted.

This will also not be an uncritical Green voice, even though James is press officer for the Green MSPs, Jeff has just joined the Green Party of England and Wales, and Malc… well, he too is moving in the right direction.

We aren’t naive enough to think that a blog can make a difference, however fun it may be to write and however fascinating the debates. However, whatever we end up writing between us as the days, weeks, months and perhaps even years draw on, we hope we will at least get to provide another chronicle of Scotland as it becomes a better nation.
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The founding editors are a merry band of three – James Mackenzie, Jeff Breslin and Malcolm Harvey, Scottish political bloggers who have forged friendships through their respective online presences in the past few years. The flexibility that a panel of editors affords was part of the key appeal for this blog.

Regular updates without onerous individual effort should be an easier recipe for a substantial, interesting blog, and, as we hope to disagree regularly, also for debate between ourselves as well as with any readers we are lucky enough to find. There is no reason why the number of scribes should remain pruned back at three, so there is scope for organic growth over time.

The aim is that this blog will also be festooned with guest writers, invitational posts from around the globe, staged debates and cross-postings with other parts of the blogosphere. Furthermore, there is a corresponding Twitter feed @NationBetter, because it is important to remember that sometimes you have to go backwards in order to go forwards (and also because every permutation of “Better Nation” has already been taken!)

We will only feel it has been a success if we provoke fierce and intelligent debate, but please be nice.