Time to Renew Scottish Labour
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Title : Time to Renew Scottish Labour
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You are now reading the article Time to Renew Scottish Labour With link address https://newstoday-ok.blogspot.com/2017/08/time-to-renew-scottish-labour.html
Title : Time to Renew Scottish Labour
link : Time to Renew Scottish Labour
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Few things typify the volatility of British politics more than what has happened in Scotland during these last three years. It's dizzying. The summer of 2014 signified the seeming eclipse of Scottish Labour as the nationalist tide came in and annexed its activist base and a goodly chunk of the party's voters to the SNP. Then came the 2015 general election and what Nicola Sturgeon calls the Westminster parties were comprehensively routed. Huge majorities that would ordinarily grant MPs seats for life tumbled. Battered, traumatised, from England and Wales it appeared a Labour come back in Scotland would be glacially slow. Then 2017 and the volatility struck again. This time the SNP were out of sorts as the nationalist tide went out. All eyes were on the Tories who scored their best result for 30 years. Say what you like about Scottish Labour, it at least proved effective in putting them in a box and ensuring the lid stayed on. And, of course, Labour were able to claw back six seats from the SNP to take its parliamentary representation to seven.
Last month, I argued that Scottish Labour would have done much better had they ditched the scabrous 'unionist vote' strategy the party pursued during the election. As elsewhere in England and Wales, Corbynism is the political expression of a new mass of workers moving into electoral politics. The key difference separating what was happening here from what was going on in Scotland is the independence movement was, at the time the best vehicle for those interests. It was anti-Tory, the SNP offered a broadly social democratic alternative to eternal insecurity, and, well, they had the vision thing. It was fuzzy, but at least the SNP talked a good better future. If Labour hopes to restore its former dominance, intersecting with this burgeoning constituency, which is not at all represented by the backward and frequently sectarian politics of unionism, is the best, the only path to renewal.
This in mind, there are two things of interest to have happened this last week. The first is Jeremy Corbyn's tour of Scotland, which is seeking to build on the movement from the SNP back to Labour. Part of it is helped by the SNP's record in government, and part is the growing realisation among layers of former SNP supporters that independence isn't necessary to get rid of the Tories and building a better society. The SNP for their part cannot really give an answer this. As a governing party their rhetoric doesn't match their day-to-day, though it would be unwise to not note they operate under the same Tory cosh as much as the Welsh government and myriad Labour authorities do. Nevertheless there are choices to be made within the constraints they operate, and the persistent difficulties afflicting the Scottish education system cannot be laid entirely at the door of mean spirited Tory funding. There's one opening for Labour.
And second, the Sunday Herald ran with "Scottish Labour in civil war" this morning. Closer inspection with the hyperbole filters on locates the revolt's epicentre in the editorial office of Scottish Left Review. It is the journal and the journal alone calling for the ouster of Our Kez ... for now. But they are entirely right to do so. As per above, Scottish Labour was impeded by its cretinous unionist vote strategy during the election not because they have the wrong ideas, but because of the party apparatus. As it withered on the vine after decades of neglect so the outlook of Scottish Labour reflects less a broad constituency and more a wretched and decomposing labour aristocracy peopled by lazy (ex)MPs, spads, fixers, time-servers, and cliquey friends-of-friends. It's a rotten culture that makes a mockery of the very idea of party democracy, and one that needs forcibly shoving aside if the party is to remain a going concern, let alone grow and prosper. It's early days yet, but accompanying the Herald piece was a splash on Neil Findlay's new book on the recent travails of Scottish Labour. Readers may recall Neil took on the execrable Jim Murphy in the 2014 leadership contest. Coincidence?
At the next election Scotland will be an even more important battleground. Not just because the SNP are on the retreat and Labour could potentially take many more seats from them. There are also now 13 Tory seats in play, seats absolutely vital to their chances of forming a government. For once, what happens up there is going to make a real difference to the parliamentary arithmetic. That's why it's not only a good idea for Scottish Labour to rebel and turf out its hapless leader and the party's appalling coterie of bureaucrats, but a necessity.
Few things typify the volatility of British politics more than what has happened in Scotland during these last three years. It's dizzying. The summer of 2014 signified the seeming eclipse of Scottish Labour as the nationalist tide came in and annexed its activist base and a goodly chunk of the party's voters to the SNP. Then came the 2015 general election and what Nicola Sturgeon calls the Westminster parties were comprehensively routed. Huge majorities that would ordinarily grant MPs seats for life tumbled. Battered, traumatised, from England and Wales it appeared a Labour come back in Scotland would be glacially slow. Then 2017 and the volatility struck again. This time the SNP were out of sorts as the nationalist tide went out. All eyes were on the Tories who scored their best result for 30 years. Say what you like about Scottish Labour, it at least proved effective in putting them in a box and ensuring the lid stayed on. And, of course, Labour were able to claw back six seats from the SNP to take its parliamentary representation to seven.
Last month, I argued that Scottish Labour would have done much better had they ditched the scabrous 'unionist vote' strategy the party pursued during the election. As elsewhere in England and Wales, Corbynism is the political expression of a new mass of workers moving into electoral politics. The key difference separating what was happening here from what was going on in Scotland is the independence movement was, at the time the best vehicle for those interests. It was anti-Tory, the SNP offered a broadly social democratic alternative to eternal insecurity, and, well, they had the vision thing. It was fuzzy, but at least the SNP talked a good better future. If Labour hopes to restore its former dominance, intersecting with this burgeoning constituency, which is not at all represented by the backward and frequently sectarian politics of unionism, is the best, the only path to renewal.
This in mind, there are two things of interest to have happened this last week. The first is Jeremy Corbyn's tour of Scotland, which is seeking to build on the movement from the SNP back to Labour. Part of it is helped by the SNP's record in government, and part is the growing realisation among layers of former SNP supporters that independence isn't necessary to get rid of the Tories and building a better society. The SNP for their part cannot really give an answer this. As a governing party their rhetoric doesn't match their day-to-day, though it would be unwise to not note they operate under the same Tory cosh as much as the Welsh government and myriad Labour authorities do. Nevertheless there are choices to be made within the constraints they operate, and the persistent difficulties afflicting the Scottish education system cannot be laid entirely at the door of mean spirited Tory funding. There's one opening for Labour.
And second, the Sunday Herald ran with "Scottish Labour in civil war" this morning. Closer inspection with the hyperbole filters on locates the revolt's epicentre in the editorial office of Scottish Left Review. It is the journal and the journal alone calling for the ouster of Our Kez ... for now. But they are entirely right to do so. As per above, Scottish Labour was impeded by its cretinous unionist vote strategy during the election not because they have the wrong ideas, but because of the party apparatus. As it withered on the vine after decades of neglect so the outlook of Scottish Labour reflects less a broad constituency and more a wretched and decomposing labour aristocracy peopled by lazy (ex)MPs, spads, fixers, time-servers, and cliquey friends-of-friends. It's a rotten culture that makes a mockery of the very idea of party democracy, and one that needs forcibly shoving aside if the party is to remain a going concern, let alone grow and prosper. It's early days yet, but accompanying the Herald piece was a splash on Neil Findlay's new book on the recent travails of Scottish Labour. Readers may recall Neil took on the execrable Jim Murphy in the 2014 leadership contest. Coincidence?
At the next election Scotland will be an even more important battleground. Not just because the SNP are on the retreat and Labour could potentially take many more seats from them. There are also now 13 Tory seats in play, seats absolutely vital to their chances of forming a government. For once, what happens up there is going to make a real difference to the parliamentary arithmetic. That's why it's not only a good idea for Scottish Labour to rebel and turf out its hapless leader and the party's appalling coterie of bureaucrats, but a necessity.
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You are now reading the article Time to Renew Scottish Labour With link address https://newstoday-ok.blogspot.com/2017/08/time-to-renew-scottish-labour.html