I used to have a
Conservative MP. It’s hard to believe now, but there used to lots of
Conservative MPs in Scotland. Elections in Scotland used to be much the same as
elections in other parts of the UK. Sometimes Labour would do rather better,
sometimes the Conservatives. The Liberals had a few seats and by the 1970s so
did the SNP, but the electoral map of Scotland was overwhelmingly either blue
or red. What changed this? It was the
long period of Conservative government from 1979 to 1997.
In Scotland there is
one insult worse than all others. It’s the word ‘Tory’. Britain went through
great changes in the 1980s. This was especially the case in the industrial
areas of the North of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Change was
no doubt necessary. There was a lot of industry that simply was not making a
profit. But great suffering was caused by the changes that took place. In
Scotland it has led to a lasting resentment. Thatcher is now viewed like
Cromwell in Ireland.
Faced with continual
Conservative Government, people on the left in Scotland decided to gang up on
the Tories. There was a twofold plan. Everyone voted tactically against
Conservative candidates in an attempt to get their numbers down as low as
possible. Labour people voted in this way, so did Lib Dems and so did the SNP.
The plan succeeded magnificently. The Conservatives ended up in one election
with no seats and now have only one. They
were once the dominant party in much of Scotland, but they were effectively
wiped out. Lots of people still voted Conservative of course, but when your
party is hated and ganged up on, it is fairly hard to win many seats. The other
part of the plan was the Scottish Assembly. This would mean that even if the
other parts of the UK voted Conservative, Scotland to at least a great extent would
still be ruled by the left. There would of course, always be a permanent Labour/Lib Dem majority in the Scottish Assembly.
It was a very cunning
plan. I remember the delight at the time of those who had come up with it. Not
only had they wiped out the Conservatives in Scotland, not only had they made
an assembly that would always have a Labour/Lib Dem majority, they had done
what was necessary to stop the rise of nationalism in Scotland. The SNP would
never have any power. They would be crushed by the Scottish Assembly.
The hatred of Tories
continued in Scotland even when Tony Blair created New Labour, which implicitly
accepted that much of what had been done between 1979 and 1997 had been
necessary. Labour’s process of modernisation from Kinnock through Smith to
Blair was necessary in order that Labour would have a chance of winning
elections in the modern world. Economics
has often been seen as Labour’s Achilles’ heel. One reason the Conservatives
were in power for so long was memories of 1979. It was this process of
modernisation which again enabled Labour to put forward a credible economic
plan in 1997. It’s what got them elected. For a time that plan worked well. In
the early years the UK economy did well under Blair and Brown. But again in 2008
the UK economy faced a crisis. This time it was far worse than 1979. It
wouldn’t have mattered which party had been in power in 2008, there still would
have been a catastrophe. Alistair Darling handled the catastrophe as well as
anyone could. Nevertheless, it was primarily because of the economic crisis
that Labour lost in 2010. This meant that Labour in opposition had, once more, to
put forward a credible economic plan in order to become electable. This is how
sensible parties respond to defeat at the polls.
The trouble is that in
Scotland throughout the time since 1997 and the beginning of the Blair
government the hatred of Tories has continued unabated. But now it has become
the hatred of the economic consensus held by Labour, the Conservatives and the
Lib Dems that Britain must live within its means. Labour are now called Red
Tories in Scotland, while the Lib Dems are yellow Tories.
The destruction of the
Conservative party in Scotland and the hatred of Tories is directly responsible
for the rise of the SNP. It is because Tories rule in Westminster that SNP
supporters hate Westminster. It is because Tories rule Britain that
Nationalists hate Britain. But it is because Labour modernised and accepted
that there is an economic consensus shared by all mainstream parties that
Labour is hated in Scotland, too. Because Labour no longer wants to overthrow
capitalism, they are Tories.
The trouble with the
Labour party’s strategy in Scotland is that it rebounds on them. They still
campaign as the hate the Tory party. But they are immediately faced with the
problem that if they hate the Tories so much, why do they more or less share
Tory economic assumptions? Labour economics since 1997 are real world modern
economics that have a chance of leading Britain to prosperity. They are
economics that have a good chance of leading us to a balanced budget soon. They
are sensible economics that will give us growth as well as a chance of making
life a little fairer for everyone. But they are not socialism. Labour has become a
social democratic party and for this reason Labour has a chance of ruling in a
modern globalised Europe where social democratic parties frequently oversee
economic success stories. But the nationalists in Scotland just see the Labour
party taking on the Conservative party’s clothes.
By creating a bogeyman
called the Tory, the left in Scotland has sowed the seeds for its own
destruction. It was wiping out the
Conservatives in Scotland which legitimised the SNP narrative that Scotland
voted fundamentally differently from the UK. It is the blind hatred of the
Tories that is behind the hatred of Westminster and any Westminster party. The
Scottish Assembly/Parliament far from nullifying nationalism has fuelled it. But still
Labour campaigns in Scotland as the Tory hating party. It still tries to
appease the nationalists. But all of this is simply turned back on Labour. The
SNP pretend that they are Old Labour, the Labour of your youth. Labour can
either try to outflank them on the left which would make them unelectable
elsewhere or continue on the sensible moderate line which is making them
unelectable in Scotland. It’s the fact that Labour has credible economic
policies that is turning them into Red Tories in the eyes of the nationalists.
Finally, we must all
learn the lesson of the past twenty years. Don’t work with nationalists. They
will destroy you. Don’t appease or make concessions to nationalism, it will
only increase. Labour’s greatest enemy in Scotland is the SNP. The only defence
is not to work with them in any way. The
SNP also have the power to destroy Labour in the rest of the UK. A Labour
government that helps the UK economy to recover still further over the next 5
years while making life a little fairer for everyone will do wonders for Labour
reputation of handling the economy. On the other hand working with the SNP will create another 1979 or another 2008. Don’t let the SNP wreck Labour's economic reputation by
demanding ever more spending that we can’t afford. By all means disagree with Conservatives, but,
above all, change the record. It is the hatred of Tories in Scotland that is
destroying Labour.
If you like my writing, you can find my books Scarlet on the
Horizon, An Indyref Romance and Lily of St Leonards on Amazon. Please follow
the links on the side. Thanks. I appreciate your support.
