Scotland is proof of Blue Labour’s thesis that faith, flag and country are replacing class alignments. The SNP was regarded with suspicion by west Scots as an Edinburgh protestant supremacist operation. The Irish tricolour can be seen as often as the Saltire in some parts of Lanarkshire. Salmond has defused this sectarianism and offered a social democratic rhetoric, keen on Europe and not keen on US neoliberalism and geopolitics, that appeals to centre-left voters.
Tommy Brennan, the legendary Scottish steelworker union leader, who led the Ravenscraig campaign announced he would vote Salmond but not join the SNP. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, the other AS is now a celebrity politician whose fame transcends ideology.
The United Kingdom long ago ceded regional autonomy to one of its component national regions, namely Northern Ireland. Alex Salmond loved donning the rayments of a pillar of the British establishment when he came to kneel at the royal wedding a week ago. The Queen will still holiday in Scotland. Edinburgh will be the second centre of British finance capitalism. There will be no threat to the union unless Cameron panics and tries to deny Scottish MPs – including vital Liberal Democrat ministers and MPs – the right to vote.
Salmond will hint at ‘nevereferendums’ on independence but not risk a defeat in a plebiscite. There have been plenty of Salmonds in European or Quebec politics. In their nation-region they are gods. But unless they can also win a bloc of MPs to hold the balance of power in Ottawa, Berlin or Madrid they do not alter mainline politics. And the evidence is that Scots vote SNP for Holyrood but for British parties for Westminster.
In the 1950s Conservatives held half of Scotland’s seats. By the 1980, Labour reigned supreme. Now the wheel turns. In last Monday’s election in Canada, the complacent arrogance of Quebec nationalists was shattered as the Tories and Labourish NDPers won seat after seat. This will happen in Scotland though not until Salmond leaves the scene or his promises to pay for anything on tick begin to be seen as hollow.
Three years ago I wrote a sensibly ignored argument that Labour needed a policy for England. The domination of New Labour by Scottish MPs culminating in the Brown cabinet where nearly everyone was a Scot had led to the slow disconnect of Labour from England. The stellar Scots deserved their promotion as they were a remarkably gifted political generation. But it is in and from England that the UK will accept to be governed and Labour now needs a policy for England more than ever.
‘ faith flag and country ‘ blaagghhh, blow off, just payback time for ‘the oil’ just a big sulk, a moody ,a strop,a pointing out we’re ‘worth it’ etc. To get us rid of the Tories just wait and see the Scots,far from stupid know we must pull together in the end to do that.
Very well said. But without wishing to damage the pride of Scotland’s beleagured bankers still further, isn’t Leeds the UK’s second financial centre?
How about a policy of consulting the people of England on the re-establishment of the English parliament? The Scots, Welsh and northern Irish were all consulted on their own governments but all Labour offered England was a vote on the “regions”. Strangely there’s little appetite in England for the balkanisation of England. I read recently that Ed Miliband was describing himself as “a man for middle England”. What England needs is men (and woman) for the whole of England and England as a whole. Home rule for England.
The stellar Scots? Do me a favour. They are not only bank-busters, but economy-busters. The plethora of Scots in the trade union movement caused the unnecessary dismantling of English manufacturing. What was so stellar about the warmonger Blair, the worst Chancellor in history Brown, and the rest of the Macforgettables, Darling, Reid, Alexander, Robertson, Falconer etc? These stellar Scots successfully got the British at each other’s throats and systematically tried to dismantle England with their devolution project. Fair play to the stella Scots meant giving the Celtic fringe referenda on devolved assemblies while denying the English a say, even going so far as to deny England’s existence, something Denis MacShane bellowingly denied doing to the Campaign for an English Parliament, if I’m not mistaken, at a meeting about devolution. Denis MacShane has not merely failed his Rotherham constituents, he has actively worked against their interests, in the eyes of many English people. Why else would they have to sell their homes to pay for social care, pay full prescription charges, pay full tuition fees, pay car park charges, pay tolls for roads and bridges, pay for life-prolonging cancer drugs, etc, all of which MacShane’s Scottish compatriots in his home country, do not? The days of Scottish vainglory are long past MacShane and there was/is nothing “stella” about Scottish politicians, bankers, businessmen, journalists, etc, as their performances show.
Yes at last a ‘policy’ for England. It is a shame all these former Ministers and kingpins thought this when we were in power, when they relied on Scottish votes to force thru unpopular policies in England. It is too late now as the Tories will introduce English Votes on English laws. I am a federalist and we should have gone down this route when we had the chance but no one in Labour wanted to listen about England back in the day. With boundary changes and a reduction in seats at Westminster, England will become even more dominant in UK electoral politics. The reduction in seats will also give the Tories an in-built arithmetic advantage, & their electoral advantage is further increased with the rejection of AV. We now can’t win in Scotland and we’re unlikely to win in England – so where do we go? Things are a lot worse than Labour big wigs are admitting.
I’ve heard everything, now – New Labour (in England) lost support because the leadership was Scottish! What planet have you come from, Denis? The reason why the SNP did so well has nothing to do with the ‘independence’ issue but everything to do with how the differences in policies between SNP and Labour were perceived by the electorate. Who would not vote for a party that protected so much of the electorate from the cuts deemed necessary by Westminster governement? Since the SNP had already delivered on the above since 2007 what could Scottish Labour offer to improve on the SNP? Apparently, nothing. The fact that dissatisfied Tory and Lib Dem voters chose to transfer their votes to SNP rather than to Labour is a condemnation of the ineffectual nature of the Labour campaign in Scotland. Is there hope for Labour in Scotland? Yes, there is but, like Labour in England, that is utterly dependent on advocating policies that meet the expectations of the electorate AND produce a leader (with supporting team) sufficiently charismatic to convert voters from other parties. The Scottish results suggest that Labour were deficient in both policy options and leadership charisma (or showmanship). This criticism is NOT directed at the competence or probity of Iaian Gray but at the choice of policy and the media savvy and effectiveness of the leader. The same criticisms could also be levelled at Ed Miliband after his failure to impact on Tory support in England. It’s all well for us to gloat over the collapse of the Lib Dem vote over the UK but, more importantly, why has the Labour leadership failed to reduce Tory support?
Denis McShane may have been born a Scot but soon deserted Scotland for the south, and has lost touch with Scotland and the Scottish people. If he is so concerned about in the S.N.P why hide in Rotherham and snipe at . the Scottish people for choosing their own Goveronment to be SNP and not his choice Labour. Or is it because he might not get elected in a Scottish Seat. Come off it McShane you have been too long in the south and you have no Idea what goes on in Scotland.
Not a very wise article and not based upon a correct premise either. I am not sure the defeat in Scotland should be casue for some to seek opportunity for them to try and sell us all yet another divisive flawed idea. Maybe the Scots just wanted basic representation, for their views and the views of their CLPs to be heard and some voter ID and decent Campaigning on the ground. A little bit of freedom from the Party line in London might have helped and a positive campaign about what we are fighting for rather than the negative campaign I am informed that was cynically implimented without any idea as to what was happening on the ground. Just a thought.
ferlippineck — ‘home rule ‘, lets all start knitting fireside hearthrugs & tweed bread, keeping goats to mow the grass , lay the highrises on their wee sides & have a pokey at the back, sew pearl buttons on our second ‘and jackets. Brave new world here we come ,twiddlededee.
agch Gareth, cep it te yersel’ !
I thought that the disaffected LieDem vote went to the SNP and nowhere else simply because, being the true conservatives that they are, they voted for the status quo not caring that the SNP are more to the left than either Labour or the Lie Dems. The Labour vote stood up pretty well.