Rab Fulton's Blog
September 13, 2014
Social Justice & Scottish Independence. Part nineteen.
19. Tactical Voting
During the Decade of Dissent, the potentialities of democracy could be witnessed in streets being blockaded against warrant sales, or in the ditches were anti-nuclear activists hid whilst waiting for the next nuclear warhead convoy; it could be witnessed up in the trees and down in the tunnels; in the occupied community centres and the council offices as men, women and children demanded they be listened to. But these campaigns were not the only medium by which Scots expressed their dissent. If the Scots were proving to be bold and boisterous protesters, they were just as a bold and boisterous when it came to elections; put a ballot box in front of a Scots voter and there was no telling what manner of trouble would arise.
Having voted for, but been denied, a Scottish parliament in 1979, Scots used voting in an increasingly sophisticated way. At first votes were simply seemed best placed to shake up Thatcher. Those with long memories will recall that an early beneficiary of this tactical voting was neither the SNP nor Labour. Rather, in the 1982, Roy Jenkins won the Hillhead by-election for the SDP.
Over the 80s and into the 1990s, the party that benefited most from the ‘kick the effing Tories� culture was the Labour Party. However, whilst Labour was top dog in Westminster elections, voters were happy enough to lend their vote to the SNP at by-elections. The SNP also began to make slow inroads at local elections; whilst the left wing individuals and groups that would later coalesce into the Scottish Socialist Party also had surprise victories at local level.
The warning signs were there, if only Labour chose to read them. Scottish voters wanted the Labour Party, but they wanted a Labour Party that was left wing and that put the needs of Scots and Scotland at the top of its agenda. Yet, after the Labour victory of 1997 and the reconvening of the Scottish parliament in 1999, it became increasingly obvious that Scottish Labour lacked the will to stand to the New Thatcherism of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Incapable of creating its own autonomous agenda and under constant surveillance and interference from UK Labour loyalists the party in Scotland began to rip itself apart. The beneficiaries of this were left-wing Independents, the SNP, the Green Party and the Scottish Socialist Party. By 2007 the SNP was in control of the Scottish parliament, though as a minority government.
In the 2010 general election the Tories and Lib Dems formed a coalition government in Westminster. Labour again won the most Westminster seats in Scotland. At the following Scottish parliament elections Labour assumed that they would win power in Scotland, as Scots would want a united anti-Tory front in Scotland. Labour expectations were high and, in part its analysis was correct: Scots did vote to send a strong signal to Westminster. However they chose to do this by backing the SNP. The overall vote though remained low, at just over 50 per cent. Nonetheless the SNP won a clear victory, taking votes from Labour, Greens and the Scottish Socialist party.
It would appear that Scots, rather than being settled into set political blocks, were content to switch between SNP and Labour, to use one to give fair warning to the other.Ìý One possible explanation could be that most Scots (like many people in the UK and internationally) believed that there were certain aspects of society - education, health, social housing - that should be protected from the vagaries of the markets and the interference of private corporations. To many Scots this simply seemed common sense.
Though it had become much debased over the decades, Labour had a long heritage that chimed with these values. In the early years of the Scottish parliament the Labour and LibDem coalition reflected these values. When those values came under threat by the UK Labour government, the SNP was given a chance. The SNP in government not only protected but built on the original socially progressive legislation of the Labour and LibDems. Whether it was the building of affordable and council homes or the investment in green energy, Scotland’s SNP government looked and acted very different from the austerity dominated legislatures of the UK and Ireland
Yet, there were glints of an anti-social justice streak in the SNP notably the centralisation (and increased arming) of Scotland’s police, treating sectarianism as a class issue � rather than as anti-Irish racism institutionalised in the politics and policing Scotland � and of course the desire to lower corporation tax. When challenged on these matters, SNP ministers would often display an irksome arrogance.
Nonetheless, both SNP and Labour provided Scottish voters with political options that spoke the language of a socially just society and provided proof of having legislated to create such a society. If Labour was a party that had , it retained for many voters the potential of rediscovering its roots. Conversely, while the SNP was seen to have partly fulfilled its own social justice heritage, the potential remained that this could be compromised.
For many voters the ballot box was not then a place then to choose between unionism and nationalism; it was an instrument to promote a socially inclusive society by using either party to warn the other of the electoral consequences of failing to stand up for a just society in Scotland.
The SNP understood this. Labour, blinded by a vision of itself as the majority party in Scotland, did not. Nor did Labour understand that there were other performers on Scotland’s political stage. While Labour and the SNP performed up front in the shiny lights, these other actors, as well as the prop hands, make up staff, cleaners, set designers, lighting engineers and a fair chunk of the audience were already weighing up the advantages of exiting stage left.
Ìý
Stay tuned for more in this series
All these blogs can be read from beginning at:
Follow me on
for on my published books see:
* * *
There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
During the Decade of Dissent, the potentialities of democracy could be witnessed in streets being blockaded against warrant sales, or in the ditches were anti-nuclear activists hid whilst waiting for the next nuclear warhead convoy; it could be witnessed up in the trees and down in the tunnels; in the occupied community centres and the council offices as men, women and children demanded they be listened to. But these campaigns were not the only medium by which Scots expressed their dissent. If the Scots were proving to be bold and boisterous protesters, they were just as a bold and boisterous when it came to elections; put a ballot box in front of a Scots voter and there was no telling what manner of trouble would arise.
Having voted for, but been denied, a Scottish parliament in 1979, Scots used voting in an increasingly sophisticated way. At first votes were simply seemed best placed to shake up Thatcher. Those with long memories will recall that an early beneficiary of this tactical voting was neither the SNP nor Labour. Rather, in the 1982, Roy Jenkins won the Hillhead by-election for the SDP.
Over the 80s and into the 1990s, the party that benefited most from the ‘kick the effing Tories� culture was the Labour Party. However, whilst Labour was top dog in Westminster elections, voters were happy enough to lend their vote to the SNP at by-elections. The SNP also began to make slow inroads at local elections; whilst the left wing individuals and groups that would later coalesce into the Scottish Socialist Party also had surprise victories at local level.
The warning signs were there, if only Labour chose to read them. Scottish voters wanted the Labour Party, but they wanted a Labour Party that was left wing and that put the needs of Scots and Scotland at the top of its agenda. Yet, after the Labour victory of 1997 and the reconvening of the Scottish parliament in 1999, it became increasingly obvious that Scottish Labour lacked the will to stand to the New Thatcherism of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Incapable of creating its own autonomous agenda and under constant surveillance and interference from UK Labour loyalists the party in Scotland began to rip itself apart. The beneficiaries of this were left-wing Independents, the SNP, the Green Party and the Scottish Socialist Party. By 2007 the SNP was in control of the Scottish parliament, though as a minority government.
In the 2010 general election the Tories and Lib Dems formed a coalition government in Westminster. Labour again won the most Westminster seats in Scotland. At the following Scottish parliament elections Labour assumed that they would win power in Scotland, as Scots would want a united anti-Tory front in Scotland. Labour expectations were high and, in part its analysis was correct: Scots did vote to send a strong signal to Westminster. However they chose to do this by backing the SNP. The overall vote though remained low, at just over 50 per cent. Nonetheless the SNP won a clear victory, taking votes from Labour, Greens and the Scottish Socialist party.
It would appear that Scots, rather than being settled into set political blocks, were content to switch between SNP and Labour, to use one to give fair warning to the other.Ìý One possible explanation could be that most Scots (like many people in the UK and internationally) believed that there were certain aspects of society - education, health, social housing - that should be protected from the vagaries of the markets and the interference of private corporations. To many Scots this simply seemed common sense.
Though it had become much debased over the decades, Labour had a long heritage that chimed with these values. In the early years of the Scottish parliament the Labour and LibDem coalition reflected these values. When those values came under threat by the UK Labour government, the SNP was given a chance. The SNP in government not only protected but built on the original socially progressive legislation of the Labour and LibDems. Whether it was the building of affordable and council homes or the investment in green energy, Scotland’s SNP government looked and acted very different from the austerity dominated legislatures of the UK and Ireland
Yet, there were glints of an anti-social justice streak in the SNP notably the centralisation (and increased arming) of Scotland’s police, treating sectarianism as a class issue � rather than as anti-Irish racism institutionalised in the politics and policing Scotland � and of course the desire to lower corporation tax. When challenged on these matters, SNP ministers would often display an irksome arrogance.
Nonetheless, both SNP and Labour provided Scottish voters with political options that spoke the language of a socially just society and provided proof of having legislated to create such a society. If Labour was a party that had , it retained for many voters the potential of rediscovering its roots. Conversely, while the SNP was seen to have partly fulfilled its own social justice heritage, the potential remained that this could be compromised.
For many voters the ballot box was not then a place then to choose between unionism and nationalism; it was an instrument to promote a socially inclusive society by using either party to warn the other of the electoral consequences of failing to stand up for a just society in Scotland.
The SNP understood this. Labour, blinded by a vision of itself as the majority party in Scotland, did not. Nor did Labour understand that there were other performers on Scotland’s political stage. While Labour and the SNP performed up front in the shiny lights, these other actors, as well as the prop hands, make up staff, cleaners, set designers, lighting engineers and a fair chunk of the audience were already weighing up the advantages of exiting stage left.
Ìý
Stay tuned for more in this series
All these blogs can be read from beginning at:
Follow me on
for on my published books see:
* * *
There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
Social Justice & Scottish Independence. Part eighteen
18. Labour’s new cunning plan
When it became clear that a Referendum was unavoidable (the 2011 election had given the SNP a clear mandate), Labour failed to engage with local communities or grass roots organisations. Instead in 2011 Labour MP Iain Davidson suggested that nationalists and undecided voters should be .Ìý Far from being the colourful language of a colourful character, the remarks articulated vividly the anger, frustration and hatred in Labour for the SNP and anyone who in any way associated with them.
Labour still operated under the illusion that it was the majority party of Scotland. But this was an illusion founded on a lie. Labour had never been the majority party, it had simply been, for a while the biggest minority party. Having swallowed the New Thatcherism of Blair, Brown and Darling the party steadily lost voters and â€� of far more serious consequence â€� members and activists. That it was reduced to being the second largest minority party in Scotland was confirmed in the . The SNP took the most seats. However, Labour remained control of Glasgow. For all its failings, Labour remained a formidable political machine that would use any means to keep power. After the local elections it was revealed by The Herald that during the campaign and promised that he would overturn Glasgow’s restrictions on Orange walks.Ìý
Later that year the new leader of Scottish Labour, Johann Lamont, made clear that she would be an advocate of the poisonous and self-defeating New Thatcherism. Labour, she declared would defend frontline services by ending theÌýÌý Yet much of what the SNP government supported and protected â€� no tuition fees, no prescription charges â€� had actually been introduced in the heady early days of the new Scottish parliament run by Labour and the Lib Dems. It was such policies that had so threatened the New Thatcherism of the Blair and Brown government that they deliberately interfered with and undermined the autonomy of the then Scottish government. Now it appeared that Miliband had a leader in Scotland that would finally get rid of those embarrassing reminders of heritage that Labour had long since jettisoned.
Though it was resented, the referendum was seen as providing a golden opportunity for Labour.Ìý A No win would leave the SNP broken. It would allow Labour to return to power in the UK in 2015. The austerity programme of Miliband’s government’s would be copper fastened by a Labour win in Scotland in 2016. A victorious Johann Lamont would be free to rip out the deadwood of social justice legislation introduced by the SNP and the earlier Labour/Liberal administration, and replace it with new shiny Westminster friendly austerity measures.
This new cunning plan was as utterly divorced from reality as Scottish Labour’s previous cunning plans. It was a plan that showed the Labour Party lacked any understanding or appreciation of the recent transformation of Scottish politics. It was a plan that mixed idiocy with arrogance and contempt.
Stay tuned for more in this series
When it became clear that a Referendum was unavoidable (the 2011 election had given the SNP a clear mandate), Labour failed to engage with local communities or grass roots organisations. Instead in 2011 Labour MP Iain Davidson suggested that nationalists and undecided voters should be .Ìý Far from being the colourful language of a colourful character, the remarks articulated vividly the anger, frustration and hatred in Labour for the SNP and anyone who in any way associated with them.
Labour still operated under the illusion that it was the majority party of Scotland. But this was an illusion founded on a lie. Labour had never been the majority party, it had simply been, for a while the biggest minority party. Having swallowed the New Thatcherism of Blair, Brown and Darling the party steadily lost voters and â€� of far more serious consequence â€� members and activists. That it was reduced to being the second largest minority party in Scotland was confirmed in the . The SNP took the most seats. However, Labour remained control of Glasgow. For all its failings, Labour remained a formidable political machine that would use any means to keep power. After the local elections it was revealed by The Herald that during the campaign and promised that he would overturn Glasgow’s restrictions on Orange walks.Ìý
Later that year the new leader of Scottish Labour, Johann Lamont, made clear that she would be an advocate of the poisonous and self-defeating New Thatcherism. Labour, she declared would defend frontline services by ending theÌýÌý Yet much of what the SNP government supported and protected â€� no tuition fees, no prescription charges â€� had actually been introduced in the heady early days of the new Scottish parliament run by Labour and the Lib Dems. It was such policies that had so threatened the New Thatcherism of the Blair and Brown government that they deliberately interfered with and undermined the autonomy of the then Scottish government. Now it appeared that Miliband had a leader in Scotland that would finally get rid of those embarrassing reminders of heritage that Labour had long since jettisoned.
Though it was resented, the referendum was seen as providing a golden opportunity for Labour.Ìý A No win would leave the SNP broken. It would allow Labour to return to power in the UK in 2015. The austerity programme of Miliband’s government’s would be copper fastened by a Labour win in Scotland in 2016. A victorious Johann Lamont would be free to rip out the deadwood of social justice legislation introduced by the SNP and the earlier Labour/Liberal administration, and replace it with new shiny Westminster friendly austerity measures.
This new cunning plan was as utterly divorced from reality as Scottish Labour’s previous cunning plans. It was a plan that showed the Labour Party lacked any understanding or appreciation of the recent transformation of Scottish politics. It was a plan that mixed idiocy with arrogance and contempt.
Stay tuned for more in this series
September 8, 2014
Social Justice & Scottish Independence. Part Seventeen
17. Scandal and intrigue
Wendy Alexander’s political demise was curiously similar to the former Labour first minister Henry MacLeish.
Henry MacLeish had made the mistake of trying to use the Scottish parliament to promote traditional Labour values of equality and social justice. This plan was in complete contradiction of the New Thatcherism being pursued by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. An concerning the letting out of his constituency office and Henry MacLeish resigned from office. He had been leader of Scottish Labour for only eleven months. He later resigned his seat and left active politics.
Wendy Alexander’s ‘Bring it on� plan explicitly recognised the right of Scots to decide their own future � a position flatly opposed by Gordon Brown and the UK Labour leadership. Wendy quickly changed her tune, but the damage had been done. An expense scandal soon followed and Wendy resigned. She had been leader of Scottish Labour for nine months.
In the aftermath of her resignation Henry MacLeish was as saying that Gordon Brown should accept Scotland’s "new politics" allow a "distinctive Scottish Labour perspective" to develop, but that: "Westminster has not been good in allowing that to happen."�
Of course, no right minded person would ever believe the scurrilous rumours that it was the Labour Party that leaked the Henry and Wendy scandal details into the public domain. Rather, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, it is best if we accept that the loss of one Scottish Labour Leader was a misfortune, and the loss of two an act of carelessness.
The next Scottish Labour leader, the fourth since the establishment of the Scottish parliament, was Iain Gray, who was tasked with creating a new plan that would defeat the nationalists, but would not challenge Labour’s pro-austerity ideology or recognise the sovereignty of the Scottish people. Iain did eventually come up with a plan and shamefully it is the plan that Labour has pretty much stuck with ever since.Ìý
In 2008, in expectation of SNP governmental incompetence, the Labour party came up with a strategy of Disagreeing and Shouting. No matter what the nationalist government proposed, no matter what any of its ministers said Labour MSPs would respond with sneers, laughs, sarcasm and cruel jibes.
A better strategy would have been for Labour to use its time in opposition to come up with a coherent political narrative of its own. But by now there were no wise heads left in the higher echelons of Scottish Labour. In the 2011 election, the SNP manifesto again included a commitment to an Independence referendum. This was met with great hilarity and faux outrage by Labour candidates. Bolstered by four fun years of Disagreeing and Shouting, and with hugely positive opinion poll ratings, the Labour Party went into the 2011 election with not a doubt that they would be returned to power.
The SNP won again. This time by a landslide.
Labour, devoid of any strategy or any coherent political narrative, responded with a furious rage that often slipped into absolutely blinding hatred. In the Westminster parliament .
Yet the simple truth was that the SNP is not a Nazi organisation. Nor were the people who voted for them Nazis. The reason people re-elected the SNP in 2011 is that since 2007 the nationalists had been seen to be a party of competent and socially just governance.
Ironically, the sheer volume of Labour’s Disagreeing and Shouting strategy allowed no space for Labour to distinguish between the SNPs achievements and SNP failings. By lumping successes and failures together the Labour party has repeatedly highlighted its own lack of political discernment and strategy. As voters grew comfortable with the SNP in government, the more Labour’s indiscriminate and angry opposition was seen to be not just an attack on the nationalists, but an attack on the very idea of respectful Scottish autonomy.
Ìý
Stay tuned for more in this series
All these blogs can be read from beginning at:
Follow me on
for on my published books see:
* * *
There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
Wendy Alexander’s political demise was curiously similar to the former Labour first minister Henry MacLeish.
Henry MacLeish had made the mistake of trying to use the Scottish parliament to promote traditional Labour values of equality and social justice. This plan was in complete contradiction of the New Thatcherism being pursued by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. An concerning the letting out of his constituency office and Henry MacLeish resigned from office. He had been leader of Scottish Labour for only eleven months. He later resigned his seat and left active politics.
Wendy Alexander’s ‘Bring it on� plan explicitly recognised the right of Scots to decide their own future � a position flatly opposed by Gordon Brown and the UK Labour leadership. Wendy quickly changed her tune, but the damage had been done. An expense scandal soon followed and Wendy resigned. She had been leader of Scottish Labour for nine months.
In the aftermath of her resignation Henry MacLeish was as saying that Gordon Brown should accept Scotland’s "new politics" allow a "distinctive Scottish Labour perspective" to develop, but that: "Westminster has not been good in allowing that to happen."�
Of course, no right minded person would ever believe the scurrilous rumours that it was the Labour Party that leaked the Henry and Wendy scandal details into the public domain. Rather, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, it is best if we accept that the loss of one Scottish Labour Leader was a misfortune, and the loss of two an act of carelessness.
The next Scottish Labour leader, the fourth since the establishment of the Scottish parliament, was Iain Gray, who was tasked with creating a new plan that would defeat the nationalists, but would not challenge Labour’s pro-austerity ideology or recognise the sovereignty of the Scottish people. Iain did eventually come up with a plan and shamefully it is the plan that Labour has pretty much stuck with ever since.Ìý
In 2008, in expectation of SNP governmental incompetence, the Labour party came up with a strategy of Disagreeing and Shouting. No matter what the nationalist government proposed, no matter what any of its ministers said Labour MSPs would respond with sneers, laughs, sarcasm and cruel jibes.
A better strategy would have been for Labour to use its time in opposition to come up with a coherent political narrative of its own. But by now there were no wise heads left in the higher echelons of Scottish Labour. In the 2011 election, the SNP manifesto again included a commitment to an Independence referendum. This was met with great hilarity and faux outrage by Labour candidates. Bolstered by four fun years of Disagreeing and Shouting, and with hugely positive opinion poll ratings, the Labour Party went into the 2011 election with not a doubt that they would be returned to power.
The SNP won again. This time by a landslide.
Labour, devoid of any strategy or any coherent political narrative, responded with a furious rage that often slipped into absolutely blinding hatred. In the Westminster parliament .
Yet the simple truth was that the SNP is not a Nazi organisation. Nor were the people who voted for them Nazis. The reason people re-elected the SNP in 2011 is that since 2007 the nationalists had been seen to be a party of competent and socially just governance.
Ironically, the sheer volume of Labour’s Disagreeing and Shouting strategy allowed no space for Labour to distinguish between the SNPs achievements and SNP failings. By lumping successes and failures together the Labour party has repeatedly highlighted its own lack of political discernment and strategy. As voters grew comfortable with the SNP in government, the more Labour’s indiscriminate and angry opposition was seen to be not just an attack on the nationalists, but an attack on the very idea of respectful Scottish autonomy.
Ìý
Stay tuned for more in this series
All these blogs can be read from beginning at:
Follow me on
for on my published books see:
* * *
There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
September 4, 2014
Social Justice & Scottish Independence. Part Sixteen.
16. The Great Helmsman
Saint Andrews is a beautiful town, filled with medieval buildings, incredible coastline, and vast golf links. It is where Britain’s elite family’s send their intellectually challenged offspring to go get degrees. (Prince Harry met Kate Middleton there). It is most certainly not a bastion of radical politics as I discovered many years ago when standing at a CND stall in the town. The locals were incensed at the presence of peaceniks, with one dearie declaring to the nods of her companions: ‘As long as they have the IRA, we need to keep Trident�.
In the early seventies it was also a hot bed of good nature Maoist intrigue amongst the student body. Top dog amongst the cultural revolution on the links was Alex Salmond who ever since has been known to his opponents (and a few of his admirers), as The Great Helmsman. Whether Wee Eck ever actually swam across (or fell in) the Kinness Burn in emulation of Chairman Mao’s dook in River Yangtze remains a political mystery. What cannot be denied is the man’s incredible resilience and capacity to bounce back even after the worst of defeats.
By 1990 he was the leader of the SNP. During the Decade of Dissent protesters blockaded streets, occupied council offices, defied bailiffs, and in one famous incident anti-nuclear activist (and braw piper) Craig ‘Haggis� McFarlane and managed to get inside one of the UKs nuclear submarine. The SNP, riven by divisions between progressives and fundamentalists, was incapable of providing leadership or even a coherent strategy. In 2000 Alex Salmond took a scunner to his party, resigned from the leadership and, like Winnie the Pooh, went off to have a long think, think, think. After the disastrous 2003 Scottish Assembly election the Great Helmsman returned, won the leadership in 2004 and began the slow Herculean task of trying to sort out the Scottish National Party in time for the 2007 Scottish election.
Well, we’ve all been there: Trying to get oor weans presentable for first day of the school term; combing their hair and fixing their collars; reminding them to play nice with the other boys and girls; checking the pockets of the oldest for matches and inflammatory materiel; telling the little one at the back not to eat spiders in front of teacher ‘because you know what happened last time�. And then when the children have finally stepped into the school yard you sigh a little and think ‘ah bless�.
So too it was with Alex Salmond as he fashed and footered and pleaded and cajoled the SNP into some form of readiness for the 2007 Scottish Assembly election. The Great Helmsman grandly announced that he was standing for election too, thereby showing his commitment to the devolved parliament (as well as allowing him to keep a beady eye on his charges). The SNP looked good and all its candidates behaved themselves. The hope was for a credible result that would allow the nationalist to begin the slow arduous task of building up the support and credibility needed to eventually take control of the parliament. However, the Scottish electorate had different ideas. To the surprise and dismay of all the political parties, the SNP included, the nationalist woke up the morning after the election to find themselves in power.Ìý
The Labour party was as shocked as everyone else. But dismay quickly turned to glee as the comrades grew increasingly confident that the SNP minority government would make an arse of things. In expectation of SNP incompetence the Labour party came up with a whizzo strategy of Disagreeing and Shouting. No matter what the nationalist government proposed, no matter what any of its ministers said Labour MSPs would respond with sneers, laughs, sarcasm and cruel jibes.
A better strategy would have been for Labour to use its time in opposition to come up with a coherent political narrative of its own. But by now there were no wise heads left in the higher echelons of Scottish Labour. In the 2011 election, the SNP manifesto included a commitment to an Independence referendum. This was met with great hilarity and faux outrage by Labour candidates. Bolstered by four fun years of Disagreeing and Shouting, and with hugely positive opinion poll ratings, the Labour Party went into the 2011 election with not a doubt that they would be returned to power. However, the SNP won again, this time by a landslide.
Labour, devoid of any strategy or any coherent political narrative, responded with a furious rage that often slipped into absolutely blinding hatred. In the Westminster parliament .
But the nationalist and their voters are not Nazis. The reason they win elections is as glaring as it is simple: The SNP is seen as a party of competent and socially just governance. In my next blog I’ll be examining whether in fact this description is justified.
Stay tuned for more in this series
All these blogs can be read from beginning at:
Follow me on
for on my published books see:
* * *
There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
Saint Andrews is a beautiful town, filled with medieval buildings, incredible coastline, and vast golf links. It is where Britain’s elite family’s send their intellectually challenged offspring to go get degrees. (Prince Harry met Kate Middleton there). It is most certainly not a bastion of radical politics as I discovered many years ago when standing at a CND stall in the town. The locals were incensed at the presence of peaceniks, with one dearie declaring to the nods of her companions: ‘As long as they have the IRA, we need to keep Trident�.
In the early seventies it was also a hot bed of good nature Maoist intrigue amongst the student body. Top dog amongst the cultural revolution on the links was Alex Salmond who ever since has been known to his opponents (and a few of his admirers), as The Great Helmsman. Whether Wee Eck ever actually swam across (or fell in) the Kinness Burn in emulation of Chairman Mao’s dook in River Yangtze remains a political mystery. What cannot be denied is the man’s incredible resilience and capacity to bounce back even after the worst of defeats.
By 1990 he was the leader of the SNP. During the Decade of Dissent protesters blockaded streets, occupied council offices, defied bailiffs, and in one famous incident anti-nuclear activist (and braw piper) Craig ‘Haggis� McFarlane and managed to get inside one of the UKs nuclear submarine. The SNP, riven by divisions between progressives and fundamentalists, was incapable of providing leadership or even a coherent strategy. In 2000 Alex Salmond took a scunner to his party, resigned from the leadership and, like Winnie the Pooh, went off to have a long think, think, think. After the disastrous 2003 Scottish Assembly election the Great Helmsman returned, won the leadership in 2004 and began the slow Herculean task of trying to sort out the Scottish National Party in time for the 2007 Scottish election.
Well, we’ve all been there: Trying to get oor weans presentable for first day of the school term; combing their hair and fixing their collars; reminding them to play nice with the other boys and girls; checking the pockets of the oldest for matches and inflammatory materiel; telling the little one at the back not to eat spiders in front of teacher ‘because you know what happened last time�. And then when the children have finally stepped into the school yard you sigh a little and think ‘ah bless�.
So too it was with Alex Salmond as he fashed and footered and pleaded and cajoled the SNP into some form of readiness for the 2007 Scottish Assembly election. The Great Helmsman grandly announced that he was standing for election too, thereby showing his commitment to the devolved parliament (as well as allowing him to keep a beady eye on his charges). The SNP looked good and all its candidates behaved themselves. The hope was for a credible result that would allow the nationalist to begin the slow arduous task of building up the support and credibility needed to eventually take control of the parliament. However, the Scottish electorate had different ideas. To the surprise and dismay of all the political parties, the SNP included, the nationalist woke up the morning after the election to find themselves in power.Ìý
The Labour party was as shocked as everyone else. But dismay quickly turned to glee as the comrades grew increasingly confident that the SNP minority government would make an arse of things. In expectation of SNP incompetence the Labour party came up with a whizzo strategy of Disagreeing and Shouting. No matter what the nationalist government proposed, no matter what any of its ministers said Labour MSPs would respond with sneers, laughs, sarcasm and cruel jibes.
A better strategy would have been for Labour to use its time in opposition to come up with a coherent political narrative of its own. But by now there were no wise heads left in the higher echelons of Scottish Labour. In the 2011 election, the SNP manifesto included a commitment to an Independence referendum. This was met with great hilarity and faux outrage by Labour candidates. Bolstered by four fun years of Disagreeing and Shouting, and with hugely positive opinion poll ratings, the Labour Party went into the 2011 election with not a doubt that they would be returned to power. However, the SNP won again, this time by a landslide.
Labour, devoid of any strategy or any coherent political narrative, responded with a furious rage that often slipped into absolutely blinding hatred. In the Westminster parliament .
But the nationalist and their voters are not Nazis. The reason they win elections is as glaring as it is simple: The SNP is seen as a party of competent and socially just governance. In my next blog I’ll be examining whether in fact this description is justified.
Stay tuned for more in this series
All these blogs can be read from beginning at:
Follow me on
for on my published books see:
* * *
There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
September 1, 2014
Social Justice & Scottish Independence. Part fifteen
15. A Legacy Betrayed
When I was a boy the local clenny man was held in high esteem. Not only did he take away the rubbish, he was a ballroom dancer of some repute and the local organiser for the Communist Party. When I was a teenager he asked my parents to pass on one of his books to me. I have always been a voracious reader and a great fan in particular of myths and adventures and tales of great deeds and heroes triumphing over the odds. The book I was given by the clenny man had all this and much more. For the heroes in this book were not princes or nobles or kings. The heroes of this book were serfs, sailors, bakers and tailors. They were ordinary people struggling against princes and kings, nobles and villainous merchants. The book was called The History of the Working Class of Scotland. It touched me more than any book I had ever read and made me what to be as great a hero as those in that rousing narrative.
The book was written by , a towering figure in the history of the Labour Party. As well as supporting the great social struggles during the era of the , he campaigned against the treatment of , who endured imprisonment and hunger strike in protest against the first world war. Though he was to soften his politics in later years and supressed his own book, Tom Johnston remains an influential and admirable figure in the Scottish and UK labour movement. As secretary of state for Scotland from 1941 to 1945 he was sensitive to the needs of Scots (and the threat of nationalism) and was proactive in using the state to create jobs and spearhead innovations like hydroelectric power.
Tom Johnston’s ideas were very much part of a wider European consensus, especially after the horror and deprivation of the Second World War, that the wealth and power of states should be used to invest in health, education, job creation, affordable housing and welfare support. Though governments switched between left and right in the decades following the war, the social foundations of the new Europe seemed secure. With the triumph of Thatcher in 1979, this consensus began to crumble. The collapse of communism in eastern Europe in the late 1980s was used as justification for a further shift to the right � as if the workers, students and artists who campaigned (and endured violence, arrest and death) against totalitarianism did so simply to promote neo-liberalism.
From 1989 the Labour Party increasingly accepted the ideology that free markets equal freedom. When in power Tony Blair and Gordon Brown deepened the cruelty and inequalities of the former Tory regime, and stamped down hard on those Scottish Labour members who dared to use the Scottish Parliament to promote a socially inclusive society in Scotland. With every year since then the Labour Party has moved ever deeper into the rank quagmire of neo liberalism. But it was not only the social consensus within the UK that was attacked by the Blair and Brown. Backed by the wealth and weaponry stored in Scotland the Labour government set about trying to reshape the world according to Labour’s vision of neo liberalism; thus the industrial scale slaughter inflicted on the people of Iraq in 2003.
The economic collapse of 2008 showed how flawed neo liberalism was. Yet, instead of a change in direction, the political elites of the UK and Europe used the financial crisis to deepen and justify the ongoing attacks on social inclusivity. The big lie now promoted by political elites was that the increase in poverty and inequality did not result from bailing out banks and bankers, but rather from too much money being spent on health, education and welfare. As the propaganda of rulers grew ever more disconnected from the reality of citizens other darker Big Lies were disinterred from the graveyards of Europe’s ugly past. In the UK, Prime Minister Gordon Brown adopted a slogan of the extreme far right . It did nothing to save his government, but it did embolden a new political party, the ant-migrant anti-EU UKIP.
It was a long journey but the Labour Party had finally cut any last remaining ties with the legacy of Tom Johnston and men and women who campaigned to create a socially just United Kingdom. Looking at the world that Blair, Brown and Alistair Darling helped to create, a world of violence, insecurity, desperation and poverty, resonate down through the decades with a terrible and sorrowful clarity. As he stood in the dock in 1918, John MacLean - Marxist, Internationalist, Scottish Republican, teacher, activist and anti-war campaigner - declared:
‘No human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do everything that is for the benefit of mankind. I am not here, then, as the accused; I am here as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot.�
Follow me on
For on my published books see:
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There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
When I was a boy the local clenny man was held in high esteem. Not only did he take away the rubbish, he was a ballroom dancer of some repute and the local organiser for the Communist Party. When I was a teenager he asked my parents to pass on one of his books to me. I have always been a voracious reader and a great fan in particular of myths and adventures and tales of great deeds and heroes triumphing over the odds. The book I was given by the clenny man had all this and much more. For the heroes in this book were not princes or nobles or kings. The heroes of this book were serfs, sailors, bakers and tailors. They were ordinary people struggling against princes and kings, nobles and villainous merchants. The book was called The History of the Working Class of Scotland. It touched me more than any book I had ever read and made me what to be as great a hero as those in that rousing narrative.
The book was written by , a towering figure in the history of the Labour Party. As well as supporting the great social struggles during the era of the , he campaigned against the treatment of , who endured imprisonment and hunger strike in protest against the first world war. Though he was to soften his politics in later years and supressed his own book, Tom Johnston remains an influential and admirable figure in the Scottish and UK labour movement. As secretary of state for Scotland from 1941 to 1945 he was sensitive to the needs of Scots (and the threat of nationalism) and was proactive in using the state to create jobs and spearhead innovations like hydroelectric power.
Tom Johnston’s ideas were very much part of a wider European consensus, especially after the horror and deprivation of the Second World War, that the wealth and power of states should be used to invest in health, education, job creation, affordable housing and welfare support. Though governments switched between left and right in the decades following the war, the social foundations of the new Europe seemed secure. With the triumph of Thatcher in 1979, this consensus began to crumble. The collapse of communism in eastern Europe in the late 1980s was used as justification for a further shift to the right � as if the workers, students and artists who campaigned (and endured violence, arrest and death) against totalitarianism did so simply to promote neo-liberalism.
From 1989 the Labour Party increasingly accepted the ideology that free markets equal freedom. When in power Tony Blair and Gordon Brown deepened the cruelty and inequalities of the former Tory regime, and stamped down hard on those Scottish Labour members who dared to use the Scottish Parliament to promote a socially inclusive society in Scotland. With every year since then the Labour Party has moved ever deeper into the rank quagmire of neo liberalism. But it was not only the social consensus within the UK that was attacked by the Blair and Brown. Backed by the wealth and weaponry stored in Scotland the Labour government set about trying to reshape the world according to Labour’s vision of neo liberalism; thus the industrial scale slaughter inflicted on the people of Iraq in 2003.
The economic collapse of 2008 showed how flawed neo liberalism was. Yet, instead of a change in direction, the political elites of the UK and Europe used the financial crisis to deepen and justify the ongoing attacks on social inclusivity. The big lie now promoted by political elites was that the increase in poverty and inequality did not result from bailing out banks and bankers, but rather from too much money being spent on health, education and welfare. As the propaganda of rulers grew ever more disconnected from the reality of citizens other darker Big Lies were disinterred from the graveyards of Europe’s ugly past. In the UK, Prime Minister Gordon Brown adopted a slogan of the extreme far right . It did nothing to save his government, but it did embolden a new political party, the ant-migrant anti-EU UKIP.
It was a long journey but the Labour Party had finally cut any last remaining ties with the legacy of Tom Johnston and men and women who campaigned to create a socially just United Kingdom. Looking at the world that Blair, Brown and Alistair Darling helped to create, a world of violence, insecurity, desperation and poverty, resonate down through the decades with a terrible and sorrowful clarity. As he stood in the dock in 1918, John MacLean - Marxist, Internationalist, Scottish Republican, teacher, activist and anti-war campaigner - declared:
‘No human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do everything that is for the benefit of mankind. I am not here, then, as the accused; I am here as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot.�
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There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
August 19, 2014
Social Justice & Scottish Independence. Part fourteen
14. Local flora and fauna
I’m not sure who came up with the phrase ‘settled will� in relation to Scots and politics, but clearly they’d never hung out with the Scots I know. Having lived in Scotland - in tenement, peace camp, semi-detached, bedsit and caravan � I would have to say I’ve never encountered a settled will with anybody. In fact, I’m not sure that any group of homo sapiens are capable of agreeing to a settled will of anything, unless of course the settled will of somebody who is safely deid.
The best we can hope for is to muddle along and resolve any conflicts with mutual respect, common sense and a healthy sense of humour. Far from being something to lament, our all too human failings and flounderings towards messy agreements can have brilliant and creative results that are perfectly suited to the moment. Of course such arrangements, born from human failings and ingenuity, can have unexpected results. The Scottish Parliament that was reconvened in 1999 is a dazzling example of the contradictions, limits and potential of human creativity. Its existence has had some strange consequences and continues to throw up new weird and wonderful realities, not least for the local political flora and fauna.
As an older unionist friend of mine (and committed No voter) often reminds me the Ìý were the only party ever to have won a majority of the vote in Scotland. This was in 1955. My friend remembers this election vividly, and has often told me of how he stood in Glasgow Green as the Tory candidate declared to a cheering audience, ‘Vote for us and we’ll do to the Catholics what Hitler did to the Jews!â€� Within a decade of that victory the Unionists of Scotland had been merged into the bigger UK Conservative and fell into decline. The advent of Thatcherism speeded up the decaying process. Seemingly intent on self-destruction, the party vigorously opposed devolution in the 1997 referendum.
However, once the Scottish parliament was set up the Scottish Conservatives adapted to the new reality, campaigned vigorously as ‘a patriotic party of the Scottish centre-right which stands for freedom, enterprise, community and equality of opportunity� and established itself as the third largest party in the parliament. It is still part of the larger UK party but in carving out a separate Scottish identity it appears to have slowed its rate of decline. It would seem, alas and alack, the Scottish Tories are going to be with us for a long time to come.
The fourth largest party in the Scottish parliament remains the . It should be no surprise that they sought to create a stable government with Labour in 1999 and 2003. It was the liberal governments of the late 19th and early 20th century that debated Scottish Home rule . While Labour shamed Scotland and itself with its infighting, corruption, sectarianism and slavish obedience to Westminster diktat, the Lib Dems managed to provide a steadying influence.
When the Scottish electorate kicked the Labour and Lid Dem alliance out of power in 2007, the Lib Dem vote held up, whilst Labour’s fell. The liberals looked destined to continue being a small but respected part of Scotland’s political landscape. However, the Lib Dems too are part of a wider UK party. Following the 2010 UK general election, the UK Lib Dems chose to go into government with the Tories. In the 2011 Scottish election the liberal vote vanished like snow off a dyke. The machinations of its UK parent body prove to be as toxic for the Lib Dems of Scotland as British Labour’s machinations had been for Scottish Labour.
But what about the parties of the left? How did progressive voices respond to the new reality of a Scottish parliament? And who exactly represents progress and social justice in devolved Scotland? I'll be looking at this and more in my upcoming blogs.
Stay tuned for more blogs on
Follow me on
For on my published books see:
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There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
I’m not sure who came up with the phrase ‘settled will� in relation to Scots and politics, but clearly they’d never hung out with the Scots I know. Having lived in Scotland - in tenement, peace camp, semi-detached, bedsit and caravan � I would have to say I’ve never encountered a settled will with anybody. In fact, I’m not sure that any group of homo sapiens are capable of agreeing to a settled will of anything, unless of course the settled will of somebody who is safely deid.
The best we can hope for is to muddle along and resolve any conflicts with mutual respect, common sense and a healthy sense of humour. Far from being something to lament, our all too human failings and flounderings towards messy agreements can have brilliant and creative results that are perfectly suited to the moment. Of course such arrangements, born from human failings and ingenuity, can have unexpected results. The Scottish Parliament that was reconvened in 1999 is a dazzling example of the contradictions, limits and potential of human creativity. Its existence has had some strange consequences and continues to throw up new weird and wonderful realities, not least for the local political flora and fauna.
As an older unionist friend of mine (and committed No voter) often reminds me the Ìý were the only party ever to have won a majority of the vote in Scotland. This was in 1955. My friend remembers this election vividly, and has often told me of how he stood in Glasgow Green as the Tory candidate declared to a cheering audience, ‘Vote for us and we’ll do to the Catholics what Hitler did to the Jews!â€� Within a decade of that victory the Unionists of Scotland had been merged into the bigger UK Conservative and fell into decline. The advent of Thatcherism speeded up the decaying process. Seemingly intent on self-destruction, the party vigorously opposed devolution in the 1997 referendum.
However, once the Scottish parliament was set up the Scottish Conservatives adapted to the new reality, campaigned vigorously as ‘a patriotic party of the Scottish centre-right which stands for freedom, enterprise, community and equality of opportunity� and established itself as the third largest party in the parliament. It is still part of the larger UK party but in carving out a separate Scottish identity it appears to have slowed its rate of decline. It would seem, alas and alack, the Scottish Tories are going to be with us for a long time to come.
The fourth largest party in the Scottish parliament remains the . It should be no surprise that they sought to create a stable government with Labour in 1999 and 2003. It was the liberal governments of the late 19th and early 20th century that debated Scottish Home rule . While Labour shamed Scotland and itself with its infighting, corruption, sectarianism and slavish obedience to Westminster diktat, the Lib Dems managed to provide a steadying influence.
When the Scottish electorate kicked the Labour and Lid Dem alliance out of power in 2007, the Lib Dem vote held up, whilst Labour’s fell. The liberals looked destined to continue being a small but respected part of Scotland’s political landscape. However, the Lib Dems too are part of a wider UK party. Following the 2010 UK general election, the UK Lib Dems chose to go into government with the Tories. In the 2011 Scottish election the liberal vote vanished like snow off a dyke. The machinations of its UK parent body prove to be as toxic for the Lib Dems of Scotland as British Labour’s machinations had been for Scottish Labour.
But what about the parties of the left? How did progressive voices respond to the new reality of a Scottish parliament? And who exactly represents progress and social justice in devolved Scotland? I'll be looking at this and more in my upcoming blogs.
Stay tuned for more blogs on
Follow me on
For on my published books see:
* * *
There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
August 16, 2014
Social Justice & Scottish Independence. Part thirteen
13. Reasons to be cheerful.
There was huge optimism at the return of a Labour government in 1997. But even in the early years, as thousands of Scots joined the Labour Party, other Scots were involved in local campaigns to prevent the closure of schools and community centres. Protests and blockades also met the convoys that were bringing trident nuclear warheads into Scotland. Trident nuclear submarines remained berthed at Faslane Naval Base, again under protest and constant observation (I had the unnerving experience of witnessing one of the emergency evacuations there following an accident on one of the submarines).
On a cold December evening in 1998 protesters gathered in George Square, Glasgow (and in other parts of Scotland, the UK and USA) to protest at the violent gunboat diplomacy of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. Using information gathered from US spies in the UN Inspectorate team in Iraq, the UK and USA attempted to topple Saddam Hussein through a four day cruise missile . The Big Lie was that the bombardment was to rid Iraq of the nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, which it did not have.
While much attention was on the grand opening of the new Scottish parliament in 1999 these other narratives and conversations (and many more besides) were being played out across Scotland. Though the Scottish parliament soon fell into disrepute, the election results of 2003 did succeed in reflecting new ideas and concerns. At a superficial level nothing much seemed to have changed. Labour, with the LibDems, remained in control of Scotland’s executive, while the SNP remained the official opposition. However both the SNP and Labour lost seats, whilst a hail clanjamfry of new and enthused voices entered the parliament.
Seven seats were won by the which campaigns for an independent Scotland based on the protection of the environment and equality for all. Six seats were won by the , who believe in an independent Scottish republic ‘run for people not for profit�. Four independents were also elected. They were: a general practitioner won a seat after campaigning against Labour’s attacks on the NHS; , a former Labour MP, who stood as an independent demanding a progressive and socially just Scottish parliament; , a former SNP MP who was a left wing critic of the SNPs fundamentalist Independence or nothing position; John Swinburne who represented the , which campaigned to end poverty for all senior citizens in Scotland.
The message was clear: While Labour and the SNP liked to portray themselves as the two main antagonists struggling heroically over the destiny of the Scottish nation, Scots had blown both parties a big and bold raspberry. Scotland was far bigger than either the SNP or Labour or even the Scottish parlaiment. Scots had shown quite clearly that they had plenty of other options. If Labour and the SNP refused to listen to the needs of Scots, then they and the parliament they used for their school yard rammies could all go the way of the dodo.
As it was Labour and SNP did listen and they listened very carefully.Ìý Labour though simply could not believe that Scots would vote against it. It responded with an arrogance and contempt that grew bigger and shriller as its vote base vote grew smaller and smaller. The SNP, however, reacted very differently. Alex Salmond was a former leader of the SNP. His left wing leanings, gradualist approach and support for devolution had led to his losing the leadership to the fundamentalists. In 2004 he announced he was standing for the leadership again. He won a landslide victory and suddenly anything and everything seemed possible.
Stay tuned for Part Fourteen: Endless possibilities
Follow me on
For on my published books see:
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There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
There was huge optimism at the return of a Labour government in 1997. But even in the early years, as thousands of Scots joined the Labour Party, other Scots were involved in local campaigns to prevent the closure of schools and community centres. Protests and blockades also met the convoys that were bringing trident nuclear warheads into Scotland. Trident nuclear submarines remained berthed at Faslane Naval Base, again under protest and constant observation (I had the unnerving experience of witnessing one of the emergency evacuations there following an accident on one of the submarines).
On a cold December evening in 1998 protesters gathered in George Square, Glasgow (and in other parts of Scotland, the UK and USA) to protest at the violent gunboat diplomacy of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. Using information gathered from US spies in the UN Inspectorate team in Iraq, the UK and USA attempted to topple Saddam Hussein through a four day cruise missile . The Big Lie was that the bombardment was to rid Iraq of the nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, which it did not have.
While much attention was on the grand opening of the new Scottish parliament in 1999 these other narratives and conversations (and many more besides) were being played out across Scotland. Though the Scottish parliament soon fell into disrepute, the election results of 2003 did succeed in reflecting new ideas and concerns. At a superficial level nothing much seemed to have changed. Labour, with the LibDems, remained in control of Scotland’s executive, while the SNP remained the official opposition. However both the SNP and Labour lost seats, whilst a hail clanjamfry of new and enthused voices entered the parliament.
Seven seats were won by the which campaigns for an independent Scotland based on the protection of the environment and equality for all. Six seats were won by the , who believe in an independent Scottish republic ‘run for people not for profit�. Four independents were also elected. They were: a general practitioner won a seat after campaigning against Labour’s attacks on the NHS; , a former Labour MP, who stood as an independent demanding a progressive and socially just Scottish parliament; , a former SNP MP who was a left wing critic of the SNPs fundamentalist Independence or nothing position; John Swinburne who represented the , which campaigned to end poverty for all senior citizens in Scotland.
The message was clear: While Labour and the SNP liked to portray themselves as the two main antagonists struggling heroically over the destiny of the Scottish nation, Scots had blown both parties a big and bold raspberry. Scotland was far bigger than either the SNP or Labour or even the Scottish parlaiment. Scots had shown quite clearly that they had plenty of other options. If Labour and the SNP refused to listen to the needs of Scots, then they and the parliament they used for their school yard rammies could all go the way of the dodo.
As it was Labour and SNP did listen and they listened very carefully.Ìý Labour though simply could not believe that Scots would vote against it. It responded with an arrogance and contempt that grew bigger and shriller as its vote base vote grew smaller and smaller. The SNP, however, reacted very differently. Alex Salmond was a former leader of the SNP. His left wing leanings, gradualist approach and support for devolution had led to his losing the leadership to the fundamentalists. In 2004 he announced he was standing for the leadership again. He won a landslide victory and suddenly anything and everything seemed possible.
Stay tuned for Part Fourteen: Endless possibilities
Follow me on
For on my published books see:
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There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
August 15, 2014
CELTIC TALES -Scottish Independence Celebration in Galway
Celtic Tales - Scottish Independence Celebration
The 18th of September is the day of the Scottish independence referendum. To mark the occasion the world famous Celtic Tales storytelling sessions in The Cottage Bar, Galway, will be turned into a celebration of Scottish culture and the ideals of Scottish Independence. Storyteller Rab Fulton - originally from Glasgow but living in Galway for most of his adult life - will be telling wild and hilarious tales from Scotland. ÌýTo make the event extra special everybody will be allowed in at the discount price of 7 euro. Show begins at 8pm.
As well as a storyteller, Rab is an author and essayist. His recent work includes a series of essays called ‘Social Justice and Scottish Independence� which can be read at: The essays are packed with information and insights into the events leading up to the referendum.
‘I believe independence carries the best possibility of promoting social justice, tolerance and equality in Scotland� explains Rab. ‘An independent Scotland would set an example across these islands , whether you live in Cork or Manchester, Cardiff or Dundee.�
Everybody is welcome to the celebration, Scots and non-Scots, Yes voters and No voters alike. For more on Celtic Tales see: Follow Rab on twitter at
Here's rab telling a Scottish story at one of the Celtic Tales sessions
The 18th of September is the day of the Scottish independence referendum. To mark the occasion the world famous Celtic Tales storytelling sessions in The Cottage Bar, Galway, will be turned into a celebration of Scottish culture and the ideals of Scottish Independence. Storyteller Rab Fulton - originally from Glasgow but living in Galway for most of his adult life - will be telling wild and hilarious tales from Scotland. ÌýTo make the event extra special everybody will be allowed in at the discount price of 7 euro. Show begins at 8pm.
As well as a storyteller, Rab is an author and essayist. His recent work includes a series of essays called ‘Social Justice and Scottish Independence� which can be read at: The essays are packed with information and insights into the events leading up to the referendum.
‘I believe independence carries the best possibility of promoting social justice, tolerance and equality in Scotland� explains Rab. ‘An independent Scotland would set an example across these islands , whether you live in Cork or Manchester, Cardiff or Dundee.�
Everybody is welcome to the celebration, Scots and non-Scots, Yes voters and No voters alike. For more on Celtic Tales see: Follow Rab on twitter at
Here's rab telling a Scottish story at one of the Celtic Tales sessions
August 13, 2014
Social Justice & Scottish Independence. Part twelve.
12. New Labour. New realities.
Labour had won a landslide election, yet instead of dismantling the legacy of Thatcher, the new labour government chose to try and create a more humane society whilst maintaining the very worst aspects of Tory rule. The Scottish parliament would not be allowed to continue to pass progressive legislation that could embarrass and undermine the New Thatcherism of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Already riven by personal, regional and sectarian divisions Scottish Labour was now divided between those elected to the Scottish parliament and those elected to the UK Parliament. The result was that Scottish Labour was convulsed by infighting and power struggles and allegations of scandal and corruption as the Labour government in the UK sought to gut Scottish Labour of any lingering commitment to progressive politics. With social justice on the retreat, the divisions in Scottish labour came to the fore, to the humiliation of all Scots.
In 2001 the premier of Ireland and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern visited Scotland. This was a golden opportunity for the new Scottish parliament to show itself on the international stage. Bertie Ahern’s itinerary included unveiling a famine memorial at Carfin in Lanarkshire, where so many 19th century Irish migrants settled. What should have been a quiet and reflective ceremony however became an ugly display of Labour Party sectarianism and divisions.
Frank Roy the Labour MP for Motherwell had not been invited to the ceremony, whilst local Members of the Scottish Parliament had. Frank wrote to the Irish Consul in Scotland declaring that as the ceremony was occurring during the same weekend as a Celtic and Rangers match it could became a focus for sectarian violence. What role other Labour MPs and MSPs played is still to be fully worked out but it would appear that some members of the Labour executive who controlled the Scottish Assembly threatened to boycott the ceremony should it go ahead.
Implicated in the boycott was Jack McConnell, former general secretary of Scottish Labour and a rapidly rising member of the Scottish executive.Ìý Two Scottish members of the British cabinet were also implicated, . With threats of violence and boycott the ceremony was cancelled. It was a shameful day for Scotland. The from Tony Blair but this was refused.
In the same year Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish resigned after an expense scandal. The new First Minister of Scotland was Jack McConnell. Jack’s tenure was marked by his , continued infighting in Labour, and Scottish Labour’s defence of the Iraq War.
In the heated 2003 debates about Iraq, Labour and Tory MSPs united to defeat a motion calling for further weapons inspections and a . In the aftermath left-wing Labour MSP John McAllion resigned from his party and became a member of the Scottish Socialist Party. (In the UK parliament Scottish Labour MP ) In the following years, infighting and factionalism in Scottish Labour continued to be played out before a local and international audience, further reducing respect for the Scotland’s assembly.
While Labour carries the overwhelming responsibility for the reduced state of Scotland’s parliament, the SNP is not without criticism. As the official opposition in the parliament it remained harnessed to a fundamentalist independence or nothing ideology. Rather than providing a responsible critique of the Labour / Lib Dem executive, it seemed at times to revel in the disarray that Labour had inflicted on Scotland’s parliament and reputatio. The SNP was torn between acting like a government in waiting and playing the role of the joker in the pack.
To many Scots the Scottish parliament came to be seen as nothing more than a gilded box that was utterly empty of content. In the elections of 2003, voter turnout collapsed.
Follow me on
For on my published books see:
* * *
There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
Labour had won a landslide election, yet instead of dismantling the legacy of Thatcher, the new labour government chose to try and create a more humane society whilst maintaining the very worst aspects of Tory rule. The Scottish parliament would not be allowed to continue to pass progressive legislation that could embarrass and undermine the New Thatcherism of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Already riven by personal, regional and sectarian divisions Scottish Labour was now divided between those elected to the Scottish parliament and those elected to the UK Parliament. The result was that Scottish Labour was convulsed by infighting and power struggles and allegations of scandal and corruption as the Labour government in the UK sought to gut Scottish Labour of any lingering commitment to progressive politics. With social justice on the retreat, the divisions in Scottish labour came to the fore, to the humiliation of all Scots.
In 2001 the premier of Ireland and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern visited Scotland. This was a golden opportunity for the new Scottish parliament to show itself on the international stage. Bertie Ahern’s itinerary included unveiling a famine memorial at Carfin in Lanarkshire, where so many 19th century Irish migrants settled. What should have been a quiet and reflective ceremony however became an ugly display of Labour Party sectarianism and divisions.
Frank Roy the Labour MP for Motherwell had not been invited to the ceremony, whilst local Members of the Scottish Parliament had. Frank wrote to the Irish Consul in Scotland declaring that as the ceremony was occurring during the same weekend as a Celtic and Rangers match it could became a focus for sectarian violence. What role other Labour MPs and MSPs played is still to be fully worked out but it would appear that some members of the Labour executive who controlled the Scottish Assembly threatened to boycott the ceremony should it go ahead.
Implicated in the boycott was Jack McConnell, former general secretary of Scottish Labour and a rapidly rising member of the Scottish executive.Ìý Two Scottish members of the British cabinet were also implicated, . With threats of violence and boycott the ceremony was cancelled. It was a shameful day for Scotland. The from Tony Blair but this was refused.
In the same year Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish resigned after an expense scandal. The new First Minister of Scotland was Jack McConnell. Jack’s tenure was marked by his , continued infighting in Labour, and Scottish Labour’s defence of the Iraq War.
In the heated 2003 debates about Iraq, Labour and Tory MSPs united to defeat a motion calling for further weapons inspections and a . In the aftermath left-wing Labour MSP John McAllion resigned from his party and became a member of the Scottish Socialist Party. (In the UK parliament Scottish Labour MP ) In the following years, infighting and factionalism in Scottish Labour continued to be played out before a local and international audience, further reducing respect for the Scotland’s assembly.
While Labour carries the overwhelming responsibility for the reduced state of Scotland’s parliament, the SNP is not without criticism. As the official opposition in the parliament it remained harnessed to a fundamentalist independence or nothing ideology. Rather than providing a responsible critique of the Labour / Lib Dem executive, it seemed at times to revel in the disarray that Labour had inflicted on Scotland’s parliament and reputatio. The SNP was torn between acting like a government in waiting and playing the role of the joker in the pack.
To many Scots the Scottish parliament came to be seen as nothing more than a gilded box that was utterly empty of content. In the elections of 2003, voter turnout collapsed.
Follow me on
For on my published books see:
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There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
Social Justice & Scottish Independence. Part Eleven
11.ÌýÌý
War, Wealth & Power
In the twenty years between the 1979 referendum and the Scottish Assembly election in 1999 the Labour party had to overcome many obstacles in order to retain its pre-eminence in Scotland. One of the central figures of Labour’s machine in Scotland during the 1990s was the MP for Hamilton, a previous chairman of the Scottish Labour Party and Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
In the Decade of Dissent, coercion, corruption, propaganda and a compliant media helped the Labour Party face down threats from grass roots Social Justice Campaigners and an emboldened SNP. Yet in all the heat and hustle of power politics Labour failed to recognise that its most dangerous enemy was the very political machine it had created in order to maintain power. Social Justice Campaigners and the SNP played a part in Labour’s eventual fall from power, but more than anything it was Labour that mortally damaged itself.
Previous Labour governments had attempted, initially with some success, to harness two ideological opposites: the creation of a progressive society based on equality and tolerance; and the pursuit of a super power status that relied on the costly (and corrosive) old Imperial mainstay of overwhelming military power.
Scotland was central to this project. The UKs nuclear arsenal was stored in Scotland; much of the UK’s oil wealth was located in the waters around Scotland. UK government’s (both Labour and Tory) were â€� and remain â€� adamant that nuclear weapons stay in Scotland and that oil wealth be controlled from London. Historically the issue of oil and bombs has caused considerable friction between Scots and the UK parliament. However, that friction was softened by the not inconsiderable progressive policies that Labour governments passed.Ìý
With the election victory of 1997, Scotland’s importance to the UKs wealth and military status was reflected in Tony Blair’s cabinet. George Robinson was now made Defence Secretary from 1997 to 1999. He then went on to become Secretary General of NATO from 1999 to 2004. Another Scottish MP was Minister for the Armed Forces from 2001 to 2007. In charge of the UKs wealth, much of it dependent on the oil around Scotland, was Scottish Labour MP who was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007. In 2007 he became the new British prime minister.Ìý
Scottish Labour was at the heart of the UKs wealth and war capabilities. The early legislation of the new Scottish parliament suggested that Scottish Labour would be also central to the creation of progressive policies. Yet having won a UK election on the promise of devolution, then campaigned for a Yes vote in the referendum, Labour in Scotland was badly divided about the new Scottish parliament it had set up. Many of Labour’s leading Scottish members remained utterly opposed to any form of home rule. Others, such as George Robinson, only accepted it as a way of killing nationalism ‘stone dead�.
Following the death of Donald Dewar, the new Labour First Minister of Scotland, Henry McLeish, appeared committed to creating a parliament in Scotland that would pass progressive laws as well as listen to proposals from the opposition (the ending of warrant sales and the introduction of free meals were Scottish Socialist Party initiatives). However, while the UK government needed Scotland for wealth and weapons, it did not welcome the passing of progressive laws in Scotland.
It soon became clear that it was not only nationalism that New Labour sought to destroy. Legislation based on Social Justice was seen as equally dangerous and undesirable.
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There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
In the twenty years between the 1979 referendum and the Scottish Assembly election in 1999 the Labour party had to overcome many obstacles in order to retain its pre-eminence in Scotland. One of the central figures of Labour’s machine in Scotland during the 1990s was the MP for Hamilton, a previous chairman of the Scottish Labour Party and Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
In the Decade of Dissent, coercion, corruption, propaganda and a compliant media helped the Labour Party face down threats from grass roots Social Justice Campaigners and an emboldened SNP. Yet in all the heat and hustle of power politics Labour failed to recognise that its most dangerous enemy was the very political machine it had created in order to maintain power. Social Justice Campaigners and the SNP played a part in Labour’s eventual fall from power, but more than anything it was Labour that mortally damaged itself.
Previous Labour governments had attempted, initially with some success, to harness two ideological opposites: the creation of a progressive society based on equality and tolerance; and the pursuit of a super power status that relied on the costly (and corrosive) old Imperial mainstay of overwhelming military power.
Scotland was central to this project. The UKs nuclear arsenal was stored in Scotland; much of the UK’s oil wealth was located in the waters around Scotland. UK government’s (both Labour and Tory) were â€� and remain â€� adamant that nuclear weapons stay in Scotland and that oil wealth be controlled from London. Historically the issue of oil and bombs has caused considerable friction between Scots and the UK parliament. However, that friction was softened by the not inconsiderable progressive policies that Labour governments passed.Ìý
With the election victory of 1997, Scotland’s importance to the UKs wealth and military status was reflected in Tony Blair’s cabinet. George Robinson was now made Defence Secretary from 1997 to 1999. He then went on to become Secretary General of NATO from 1999 to 2004. Another Scottish MP was Minister for the Armed Forces from 2001 to 2007. In charge of the UKs wealth, much of it dependent on the oil around Scotland, was Scottish Labour MP who was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007. In 2007 he became the new British prime minister.Ìý
Scottish Labour was at the heart of the UKs wealth and war capabilities. The early legislation of the new Scottish parliament suggested that Scottish Labour would be also central to the creation of progressive policies. Yet having won a UK election on the promise of devolution, then campaigned for a Yes vote in the referendum, Labour in Scotland was badly divided about the new Scottish parliament it had set up. Many of Labour’s leading Scottish members remained utterly opposed to any form of home rule. Others, such as George Robinson, only accepted it as a way of killing nationalism ‘stone dead�.
Following the death of Donald Dewar, the new Labour First Minister of Scotland, Henry McLeish, appeared committed to creating a parliament in Scotland that would pass progressive laws as well as listen to proposals from the opposition (the ending of warrant sales and the introduction of free meals were Scottish Socialist Party initiatives). However, while the UK government needed Scotland for wealth and weapons, it did not welcome the passing of progressive laws in Scotland.
It soon became clear that it was not only nationalism that New Labour sought to destroy. Legislation based on Social Justice was seen as equally dangerous and undesirable.
Now read: Ìý
Follow me on
For on my published books see:
* * *
There’s a wheen o Yes campaigns and campaigners out there on twitter. But you might want to check out these to start with
