FORMER Scottish LibDem chief Willie Rennie, ex Greens leader Robin Harper and Save the Children director Kirsty McNeill are among the names joining Gordon Brown’s Unionist think tank advisory board, it has been announced.
The Our Scottish Future group, which describes itself as opposed to both “no change Unionism” and “no compromise nationalism”, welcomed McNeill as the board’s new chair on Tuesday.
The anti-poverty campaigner currently serves as director of policy, advocacy and campaigns at Save the Children and previously worked as an adviser to Brown during his time in Number 10.
“I’m delighted to take up the position of chair of Our Scottish Future’s advisory board,” McNeill said.
“I’m also extremely grateful to the new members of our board, all of whom are committed to setting out a fresh, progressive agenda for the Scotland we love.”
She went on: “We will proudly champion a vision of a reformed Union which puts greater cooperation between the nations of the UK at its heart but we also want to begin a new conversation with independence supporters to see if we can agree on how we can take the UK forward together.
“We may not agree about everything, but we must find ways to agree about more.”
READ MORE: By-election triggered as Labour MP Rosie Cooper quits to take on NHS job
McNeill added that the political debate isn’t currently in keeping with the severity of the cost of living crisis.
“Scots are united in thinking things can be better than this – in wanting decent jobs, good public services, more opportunities for young people and action on the climate emergency but too often the focus is just on the divisions of yesterday,” she said.
Who else is on the Our Scottish Future Advisory Board?
Other people on the Our Scottish Future board include Labour Hame editor Duncan Hothersall, former Scottish Labour general secretary Fiona Stanton, ex Labour MSP for North East Scotland Jenny Marra, and Labour councillor for Inverclyde Martin McCluskey.
The board also features those from the civil service world, with Professor Jim Gallagher – a former private secretary to two Scottish secretaries – and former permanent secretary to the Department for Exiting the EU, Philip Rycroft.
He also held a role in the Cabinet Office, with responsibility for constitutional and devolution issues.
Former Scottish Greens leader Harper has long disagreed with his own party’s pro-independence stance, saying in 2013 that he would be voting No and that he’d be happy to work with the Better Together campaign.
Reacting to the new appointments, Alba's general secretary Chris McEleny said: "It seems that Gordon Brown’s interventions are getting more regular, more repetitive and less relative to the needs of working people across Scotland.
"The latest being a list of ex-politicians that campaigned in 2014 telling Scots that if they voted No they would get cheaper energy bills.
"With questions over where a £250,000 cash boost came from for the group last month, the only thing we can be sure about is that the Brownhog Day Club is the world’s most expensive retirement party."
What does Our Scottish Future do?
Since being established in 2019, Our Scottish Future has put out a number of reports and pieces of research promoting Scotland remaining in a changed UK.
The think tank also has a podcast which has been rated just 11 times on Spotify, and 12 times on Apple Podcasts. This is a very small number compared to other political podcasts – for example the Rest is Politics hosted by former New Labour spinner Alastair Campbell has thousands of ratings and reviews on both listening platforms.
READ MORE: Gordon Brown's Our Scottish Future accused of undermining confidence in Covid system
Last month, The National reported that Our Scottish Future was facing calls to reveal the source of a quarter-of-a-million pound donations boost.
The most up-to-date Companies House filings showed that the group’s assets went from £5386 in 2020 to a whopping £267,942 a year later.
A spokesman said the funding came “via donations from among the many hundreds of individuals" and said it allowed them to "employ a small staff".
Alison Thewliss, the SNP’s economy spokesperson, called on Our Scottish Future to publish its full finances “in the interests of transparency”.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel