Amid all the perceived wisdom of the post-Scottish independence referendum analysis has emerged the view that the result could signal the death of Scottish Labour: in hock to the Tories, bulkheads breached in Glasgow and North Lanarkshire, and a large proportion of Labour’s core vote attracted to the supposed optimism of an independent Scotland. This is possible but it does not necessarily have to be the future. A radical Scottish Labour party with economic and social policies to help those in need and which campaigns fighting for local communities would prevent it.

Something must be done – but what? First, Scottish Labour does not need a change of leadership. As a party, we have complained about the two years or more of distraction leading up to the independence referendum, which has stopped discussion about how to help people who need it. It would seem somewhat hypocritical of us to create our own, new, distraction for a few more months, time which can be better used laying out a narrative for how a future Scottish Labour government would act.

Instead, Scottish Labour needs to keep two things in mind: the issues we must focus on and how we should campaign. We must focus on what we are trying to achieve. For me, the difference between Labour and other parties is that we want to spend what we can on those that need it, while some others want to spend on groups that, while they might want it, do not need it. We should stand up for people who feel no one speaks for them and that no one understands the struggles they face.

However, there seems to have been a decision, conscious or unconscious, that, in order to tackle social injustice and social deprivation, all we should talk about is services, about health and education and about what government can provide. But ask any person from the communities we should be fighting for what their first concern is and it will be one word: jobs. If education is one silver bullet in our gun, creating jobs and economic growth should be another.

As we move in to an era where the Scottish parliament will have considerably more responsibility for raising money as well as spending it, Scottish Labour must begin now to convince voters that we are on their side, that we will fight inequality of economic opportunity. By fostering and encouraging economic success, a Scottish Labour government can ensure we have the resources to implement a radical programme for services.

In the past, Scottish Labour seems to have felt hamstrung when talking about creating economic opportunities. Perhaps because it was felt that to do so would imply the need for different economic policies from Westminster and that, by extension, could have meant support for additional powers. We have sought to not be distracted by the mechanics of constitutional reform but, in doing so, we have made voters feel we do not care about these issues.

With the independence referendum monkey off our back, we should now feel free to talk about these issues whilst making sure we are not sucked in to being obsessed by process. We should now talk about ‘why’ rather than ‘what’. We should absorb the new powers we are going to get and go further and press for more, but not just powers for their own sake. We must use this opportunity to convince voters that we have their economic wellbeing at heart and say why each new power is important and what we would do with it.

We should be demanding more than control over 40 per cent of Scotland’s budget – we should be demanding 80 per cent. We want control of all rates of income tax so we can reduce the tax burden on some people and make sure those who can afford it pay more while making sure they can take their place in a prosperous Scotland. We want control over businesses taxes to make sure we can control loopholes and make sure companies are paying a fair rate. We want control of energy policy so we can reduce bills for the poorest in our society. We should want control over VAT because it is the most regressive tax there is and needs to be changed in Scotland. We want control to abolish some taxes and to create new ones – to keep Scotland competitive and fair.

Only once we talk about issues like that, voters might begin to believe what we will do to improve services. On the provision of services themselves, we have focused too much on how we want to achieve our goals rather than what they goals should be. We need to focus on ends more and means less. Means matter and they should reflect our values, but people who help need to know we will stand up for them and deliver what they want and in the way they want it.

On campaigning, Scottish Labour has erected a number of Chinese walls which define what we feel able to talk about in any given election. However, the electorate are smart enough to know what at they are voting for without us telling them. Instead, we need to convince them that Scottish Labour understands their problems, is on their side and will put in place practical measures to help them. In 2015, we should be talking about what we want for Scotland in all policy areas, the areas already devolved, the areas that will be devolved in 2016 and the additional powers we want Holyrood to have and why.

The Westminster elections should be used as the starting point to tell the Scottish electorate what we will do should we win in 2016. To do that, we need to move beyond a managerial tone and inspire. We need to show people what our vision of Scotland is to convince them to let us try and implement it. We should set our stall out as a radical party, one whose purpose is to increase economic opportunity while improving services and as a group that will stop at nothing to achieve that objective. If we observe a convention that we should only talk about ‘Westminster’ issues in 2015, our opponents will have jumped ahead and stolen a march on us. If this happens, we may cry foul but they will cry victory in 2016.

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Graeme Downie is a member of Edinburgh West constituency Labour party. He tweets @graemedownie

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Photo: Scottish Labour