The ever-increasing credibility problem for Scottish LabourApril 13, 2015
Labour are in a bad, bad place in Scotland. Recent polls send out a clear message to the party: The Scottish public has rejected their version of social justice; the Scottish public has rejected Labour’s arguments and the public has rejected Jim Murphy.
After last year’s independence referendum one thing was clear; people in Scotland wanted change. People had enough of austerity, enough of cuts and enough of the same-old boring politics. The highly engaged electorate wanted a fresh alternative to the lies, spin and cuts coming from Westminster. Instead, people wanted a vision of hope, which spells out how Scotland can be transformed into a fairer and more equal Scotland.
For the vast majority of YES voters, the answer was obvious – the SNP had led the YES campaign; they had repeatedly spelled out their vision for a fairer Scotland, a vision which found great appeal during the independence referendum.
The return to the same-old politics, which came natural to the Westminster parties, left voters who had voted No with no vision for a better Scotland within the UK. This was an opportunity for Scottish Labour to grasp this issue and present the people of Scotland their version of a fairer Scotland, using the devolution settlement so that the ‘vow’ would be fulfilled. Instead, for reasons only known to Labour members, they choose a right-winged politician, who is still tainted by Blairism, to take over leadership from Johann Lamont and took Scottish Labour on a path which they may never return from.
Jim Murphy and Scottish Labour simply have no answer against the SNP in this General Election campaign. Their initial argument that ‘a vote for the SNP is a vote for the Tories/biggest party always forms the Government’ was blown out of the water, initially on social media, then by the mainstream press. As was predicted by online commentators, Labour have since dropped this argument.
Labour’s problems continued after Nicola Sturgeon’s storming performance in the leaders’ debate in Manchester. So intent to attack the SNP and to take the shine off the First Minister’s performance, Scottish Labour decided to support and spread the malicious lies and misrepresentation of the Daily Telegraph, thus painting themselves as a party of the duplicitous Establishment.
Scottish Labour had one final chance against Nicola Sturgeon– the Scottish leader’s debates. After the first two Scottish leader’s debates, Scottish Labour proclaimed that their man was the winner. This blow up in their face when polling found that viewers thought that Nicola Sturgeon had won the debate, with Jim Murphy coming third, after the Scottish Conservatives.
Labour’s lies, spin and misrepresentation have been unsuccessful in tackling the SNP surge. Their last throw of the dice was the bold assertion that the SNP ‘Barnet bombshell’ will result in the Scottish NHS losing half its funding. This argument may have sound good in their heads but it backfired on them due to the sheer stupidity of Scottish Labour’s arguments. Are Scottish voters, who have experienced over 7 years of SNP Government, to seriously believe that the SNP will cut off their nose to spite their face and allow a situation to arise whereby the Scottish budgets gets drastically reduced?
The truth is that Scotland’s finances are protected by the Smith Commission. As former FM Alex Salmond points out:
“Principles five and six (of the Smith Commission recommendations) are the ones which concern us here. Principle five set out the policy of “no detriment” while number six was even more explicit, guaranteeing any devolution proposal should be made without Scotland or Westminster “gaining or losing financially”.
That means whatever is devolved in taxation, an equal amount of revenue is deducted or added to the financial arrangements between Scotland and London. That would apply whether a lot is devolved, as the SNP proposes, or just a little is conceded, as the London parties suggest.”
Considering that Labour signed up to these principles, it is absurd for them to claim that devo-max would bring economic ruin to Scotland.
The last throw of the dice by Scottish Labour was to position themselves as an ‘anti-austerity’ party. To do this, Jim Murphy claimed in a leader’s debate on the Sunday Politics Show that Labour do not plan any further cuts after 2015. Yet within 24hours Jim Murphy’s (and Scottish Labour’s) credibility had been blown to shreds by Mr Murphy’s ‘comrades’ in Labour’s High Command. First the Shadow chancellor and then the Shadow Business secretary contradicted Jim Murphy’s claim…and, in effect, decapitated Jim Murphy in Scotland.
With no vision, no credibility and no identity, the future looks very bleak for Mr Murphy and the Scottish Labour party.
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