stewartb
I know – most folk in Scotland know – what a Tory is. Most people in Scotland have rejected Tories at elections for decades. In the next GE, the Tories are unlikely to be a substantial threat to the SNP.
Labour is different: there may still be residual ‘muscle memory’ in parts of Scottish society that Labour will seek to exploit. But Labour offers no long term solution to Scotland’s challenges – the Tories will be back soon after a period of Tory-lite Labour Unionism.
Labour offers the voters of Scotland and our elected Parliament no significant additional agency. How much closer to the full powers of an independent nation-state can Labour/Gordon Brown propose for Scotland whilst still denying the logic of full independence? The opportunity costs for Scotland of Labour ‘solutions’ just mount up!
And in its Unionism, what is it that Labour actually needs to be retained for England and why – Scotland’s energy resources; Scotland’s base for their weapons of mass destruction; something about protecting their precious Union’s international reputation – for what? – something else?
Many people across the UK – after more than a decade of austerity and poorer public services and a cost of living crisis – may decide to vote in the upcoming GE for change. There may well be an attraction to Labour as a much needed alternative. There will be much UK media amplification of Labour messaging, especially coming from a Starmer Labour that is considered as ‘acceptable’, non-threatening, unlike Corbyn’s relative radicalism.
There is the threat of a spillover benefit to Labour in Scotland – and of course any electoral shift of any size to any Unionist party away from the SNP will be proclaimed as victory for the Union.
For Scotland, Labour is the dead end party: the party whose Unionism trumps all and therefore the party that at best can provide temporary, minor amelioration of the damage of dependence on Westminster’s control. To repeat, the opportunity costs for Scotland of Labour – or any other Unionist party’s – ‘solutions’ just mount up and up!
Talking-up Scotland 
Whether it is ideology or political expediency,Labour in Scotland appear to be welded to the one nation,one state mantra.
Scotland cannot be different in any way from England and Scottish voters are no different from English ones (in their view).
All it is going to take is for Scots to return to the fold and vote for London based political parties again.
Unfortuntely for Labour,most people,once they have had the illusion of Better Together removed from their thinking,there is no going back.
Scotland is not England and consequently needs it’s own government if it is to satisfy the needs of the people who live here and failing to do so will leave us as a territory within Greater England governed by the colonial office of the Secretary of State for Scotland (Labour or Tory).
As with NI,time is not on the side of unionists as the bedrock of their support fades away and younger people look to Holyrood for their political leadership.
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In yesterday’s Observer, will Hutton wrote a paean about
Keir Starmer and Labour. It was from a very English perspective. Constitutional reform was abolition of the House of Lords and replacement by a chamber of the nations and regions AND NOTHING ELSE. There was no change to the electoral system, despite him indicating how the default choice of the people of England is the Tories and hence, any radical change by a Labour Government can be swept away swiftly by a majority Tory government. Essentially, he was promising a period of amelioration under Labour, but nothing to shake the way the U.K. state is configured and the power relations within it. There will be a ‘sovereign wealth fund’ we are told, based on renewables, and of course the bulk of that is in Scotland, which he omitted to mention.
In essence, however we’ll meaning Hutton is – and he is well meaning – it is a colonialist mindset. The common good is, as Bodger Broon’s pooling and sharing is, for the good of England.
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The London based opposition in Holyrood begin with the assumption that everything the Scottish Government undertakes fails, and the SNP is to blame.
An article in the paper last week on the Ferries Contract Report contains a very revealing quote from a Labour source regarding the function of opposition MSPs on the Public Audit Committee that “This kind of cultish refusal to accept any blame on behalf of the SNP is the exact opposite of what MSPs are on the committee to do”.
Far removed from the function of Holyrood Committees as envisaged in the Scotland Acts as designed to encourage significant public involvement, enabling the Parliament to effectively hold the Scottish Government to account.
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I did spot the “This kind of cultish refusal to accept any blame on behalf of the SNP is the exact opposite of what MSPs are on the committee to do” quote from Conor Matchett – The “anonymous Labour source” is a favoured ploy since deep throat in the underground car-park became part of cinema history.
Once a contract has been signed, Contract Law takes over, and pity help ANY politician or civil servant who attempts to influence or interfere on that particular terrain, they and the Client will be fried, it’s as simple as that.
ANY Audit Committee member who even hinted as Conor asserted would be summarily dismissed by the rest of the committee who know what their task is.
For Matchett read hatchet with less a sprinkling than a drowning of “Eau de Latrine”, made in London…
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Contract law doesn’t cover apportioning blame after the event, or even as is the case of the ferries before the event as well.
The report is far removed from “holding the government to account”.
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Labour …? I remember …I think I remember …Labour was a party that stood for …something …it’ll come to me in a minute …eh…no, it’s gone !
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Bob, John, write a final rebuttal of the ferry stories for TuS?
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John,OK its BBC but when interviewing the 3 people in Dundee the woman 3 person I am sure she said like you I think its trouble for Scotland so was she prompted by who was doing the interview Cook might worth a look.
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It’s BBC Scotland and we certainly know their form.
The woman’s negative response, regardless of how long and how many folk they interviewed, was mainly for the nation to our immediate south.
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Illegal wars, financial fraud and tax evasion. Labour support all the Tory austerity policies. They are rotten to the cure.
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