Writer and professional layabout Shaun Milne says Scotland is ready for the road ahead – Westminster has five years to prove the union is worth it and Scotland’s voice matters, or it’s over
WELL, we knew this was coming, what with the avalanche of ‘Vote SNP, get Tory!’ slogans being spewed forth from the dodos of the Scottish Labour Party as it toddled about the place, banging into things, wilfully ignorant of its impending extinction.
The Tories have managed to manoeuvre their reptilian bodies once more into Number 10, and it is entirely the fault of those pesky jocks not doing as they’re told.
Just forget that even if Scotland had voted overwhelmingly for Labour the Tories would still have got in. Forget that it was the UK Labour Party which fell over a hundred seats short of the Tories’ majority. Forget that Ed Miliband made a farce of his entire campaign and was about as effective at rousing the English Left as Father Dougal was at being a milkman.
No, Labour’s failings are the failings of Scotland. The Tory victory is the fault of Scotland. Scottish Labour’s decimation is the fault of Scotland and not itself.
Ed Miliband made a farce of his entire campaign and was about as effective at rousing the English Left as Father Dougal was at being a milkman.
The SNP was the big bogeyman terrifying the Little Englanders in the marginal seats with its rhetoric of fairness, progress and not punishing the poor and disabled. The stuff of nightmares.
It’s all Scotland’s fault, frankly, and it’s about time somebody told them so!
I suppose this narrative is a lot easier than embarking on a journey of self-awareness, critique and evaluation. It’s less hassle to blame the pesky Scots than it is to admit that Labour just wasn’t good enough.
It requires considerably less effort to point the finger north and cry ‘bloody nationalism’ than it does to come up here and speak to us to see what’s actually going on.
Scotland voted overwhelmingly for the SNP in the General Election. The people of Scotland, nearly 50 per cent of the voting populous, chose to put their faith in something other than Tory or Labour.
After being told back during the independence referendum campaign of how Scotland should “use its voice within the UK”, to then be told our democratically elected MPs are somehow illegitimate and irrelevant… well, that smarts just a smidgen. Dan Snow, yes we’re looking at you.
It’s all Scotland’s fault, frankly, and it’s about time somebody told them so!
You see, all those Westminster politicians, celebrities and corporate interests who waxed lyrical about the benefits of the union during the indyref never did let on that the No vote actually came with a tome full of caveats.
Such as:
‘Thou shalt not consort with Nationalists.’
‘Thou shalt not vote for the Nationalists.’
‘Thou shalt honour thine Tory and Labour parties.’
‘Thou shalt not take to thine internet to point out inconsistencies between what we said pre-indyref and what we are saying now.’
‘Thou shalt not ask for more than is given by the gracious hand of our beloved Westminster.’
‘Thou shalt take what thou doth receive and thou shalt shut it and eat thine bloody cereal.’
Many on the Yes side tried to argue that if Scotland voted No, its wants and desires would be irrelevant to Westminster; the Union would have gotten what it wanted, so Scotland be damned.
That was pretty much proven true when David Cameron strode forth on 19 September and told Scotland to shut it, it’s all about EVEL (English Votes for English Laws) now. The power over road signs does not a Devo-Max settlement make.
If the rhetoric of a ‘better Britain’, ‘radical change’ and ‘equal voices’ was really meant then Ed Miliband would have stood up to the right-wing media’s demonisation of the Scottish people’s democratic will that occurred during this election.
‘A big boy did it and ran away!’ That might work if that big boy wasn’t sitting at the dinner table eating with your family and showing your mother he has better manners and sense than you do.
Imagine: ‘The people of Scotland have shown that they desire change. While I will always encourage them to vote for Labour, I want to make it very clear, here and now, that if elected, my government will work with anyone who seeks to kick out the Tories and fight for a better future for all the people of Britain. The people of Scotland voted to stay with us so let us show them that radical change can be achieved within this union. Let us show them that another fairer, more equal Britain is possible.’
Words not spoken. Ideas not shared. The path that was not taken.
‘But that’s not how British politics works!’
Spare me. Leadership means leading. It doesn’t mean cowering to the whims of your political opponents at every turn. It means standing up, believing in something and arguing for those beliefs with conviction.
Ed had his chance and he bottled it. He wasn’t good enough. Creating a monster out of the SNP in order to avoid responsibility is idiotic and damned insulting.
‘A big boy did it and ran away!’ That might work if that big boy wasn’t sitting at the dinner table eating with your family and showing your mother he has better manners and sense than you do.
Labour’s failure in Scotland can be attributed to the fact it simply does not understand what is happening here and it doesn’t have the appetite or patience to even bother trying to figure it out.
Scottish Labour would do well to read the writing on the wall – bold, large font, been there for a while – and take some responsibility for a change.
Some may think that Scottish voters will give them another chance in the 2016 Holyrood elections. If Scottish Labour still hold to the idea that Scotland is its to rule, that the SNP is to blame for everything under the sun, then MSPs will be out on their backsides.
If the SNP does a better job of being a Labour opposition than the Labour Party, then many in the rUK may start asking themselves just what exactly the Labour Party is for.
You cannot fool a politically engaged electorate by shirking responsibility for failings which are very clearly your own. If Scottish Labour continues to show a lack of humility and understanding, if it continues its tribalistic war against everything connected to the SNP, then the Scottish electorate will punish it.
Jim Murphy, as Scottish Labour leader, has to go. Even then it might be too late. In Westminster, with the election for the UK Labour Party’s new leader looking like it won’t take place until after September, we’re left with the SNP as the main opposition to the Tories.
Despite this, many of the political commentariat have decreed from their holy mountains that the 56 SNP MPs will be useless and irrelevant at Westminster as it isn’t holding the balance of power.
While I don’t think any SNP voter, if they’re honest, thinks the SNP contingent will be able to perform miracles, it’s foolhardy to write the party off completely.
It now holds third-party status and with that comes a host of benefits; financial and political. From positions on committees to a massive increase of exposure in the UK press and broadcasters, the SNP can make one hell of a racket, showing up the braying-jackal juvenile politics of the House of Commons for what it is.
It can also seed doubt and show common sense to the Labour benches, the remaining Lib Dems and even the least loyal Tory back-benchers. It might not have the votes to be a direct threat but five years is a long time and who knows what concessions might be wrung out if the SNP shouts loud enough.
All the while, the SNP can spread an alternative message to the rest of the UK. Maybe it can achieve what Ed Miliband and Labour failed to do: inspire the people.
Are Scots to be treated like a unruly pet and smacked on the nose if they don’t do as their master desires? Such posturing is foolhardy for those who wish to keep this beloved union together.
If the SNP does a better job of being a Labour opposition than the Labour Party, then many in the rUK may start asking themselves just what exactly the Labour Party is for. The age of two-party dominance, while not over, is entering a new phase.
Pressure from the smaller parties will only increase and if Labour isn’t careful it will end up doing untold damage to its already bruised self as people realise Labour is not the only option for left-leaning voters anymore.
If it doesn’t work? If the Westminster system closes ranks and employs – as is looking likely – Scotland’s single Tory and Labour MPs as the ‘voice of the Scottish people’, well that plays right into the hands of the SNP, because if such an earth-shattering political upheaval as 56 SNP MPs can’t make Scotland’s voice heard at Westminster, then what exactly is the point of this union?
Are Scots to be treated like a unruly pet and smacked on the nose if they don’t do as their master desires? Such posturing is foolhardy for those who wish to keep this beloved union together.
The disdain from the British press and political parties towards the SNP was felt during the General Election campaign and will now be exacerbated with its position in the Commons. Yet David Cameron and the Tory Party will be foolish to think the democratic voice of the Scottish people can be ignored.
For this is about more than political parties and grandstanding in parliament to ‘stick one’ to the opposition.
So Scottish Labour, UK Labour, David Cameron and the Tory Party, you wanted Scotland to stay and use its voice? Well here we are. We’ve spoken loud and clear.
This is, fundamentally, about what the people of Scotland want and if the Tories are seen implementing policies that go against Scotland’s democratic will – like the apparent attempts at undermining Scotland’s own Human Rights Act – then the momentum of the independence movement will grow with a ferocity that will make the passion during the referendum look tame by comparison.
There won’t be any stopping it. Even the forthcoming avalanche of welfare cuts might be enough to tip the scale. Scotland will have tried to work within the confines of the union and will have been sidelined and ignored.
Many former No voters – some already infuriated by the failings of the Smith Commission – will not look upon this with kind eyes. Another referendum too soon would be foolhardy, but the underlying independence movement does not, and will not, remain idle.
So Scottish Labour, UK Labour, David Cameron and the Tory Party, you wanted Scotland to stay and use its voice? Well here we are. We’ve spoken loud and clear. If you blind yourselves with petty short-sightedness this time then you only have yourselves to blame when this ‘family of nations’ splits apart at the seams.
You have a chance to make this union work, to embrace change, to listen to the people for once in your damned careers. Failure to do so will be met with punishment at the ballot box. Five years is a long time in politics and Scotland is watching closely.
You have a rabble of Nationalists in your midst, who aren’t beholden to the Etonian way of doing business. Tread carefully. The Scottish people are engaged, aware and organised. We’ve made our voices heard.
You’d do well to listen to it now or the next time you hear it, 56 SNP MPs will look like the greatest Christmas present ever, by comparison.
Picture: CommonSpace