Peter A Bells Insight on Herald article below Backfire If wishful thinking, self-deception and vacuous sloganeering then British Labour in Scotland would have in Catherine MacLeod a device to rival the obscene Trident system to which they are so devoted; or the WMD that they lied about in order to engineering their murderous imperialist assault on the sovereign nation and people of Iraq. It would take all day to catalogue the lies and fallacies in this diatribe fuelled by mindless hatred of the SNP. Ill content myself with a couple of points. MacLeod asserts that the SNP are desperate to capture the Labour vote in Scotland, evidently oblivious to the fact that this has already happened. The evidence to which her prejudices blind her include the 2011 election result and all current polling as well as the fact that, in Septembers referendum, large swathes of British Labours core support rejected their British nationalist dogma and voted to break the system to which British Labour is wedded. Most comical, however, is McLeods drivel about the SNPs sole priority being a border between Scotland and England. Wakey! Wakey! That border already exists. It is one of the oldest national borders in the world. Scotland is a totally separate jurisdiction. We even have our own parliament and democratically elected government. The only problem is that British Labour never intended that this government should actually be effective in representing the needs and priorities of the people of Scotland. And they conspire with their Tory allies to ensure that powers are withheld that rightfully belong to the Scottish Parliament. But we should be grateful to Catherine MacLeod for one thing, She nicely encapsulates all the hateful attitudes and erroneous thinking which will contribute to Murphys mob suffering a sound thrashing at the hands of the electorate in the UK elections. As she says in a telling echo of Wendy Alexander (politically deceased), roll on May 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------. Catherine MacLeod: SNP are not a progressive party Catherine MacLeod Columnist Thursday 1 January 2015 The 2015 General Election campaign is about to begin in earnest. The result is difficult to predict but in the closing days of 2014 Ladbrokes offered 7/4 on Labour winning the most votes. The Tories were on 1/2. To date the polls have made grim reading for Labour in Scotland but interestingly the latest Panelbase poll, commissioned and paid for by the SNP, did not include any figures on the electorates voting intentions. There is a simple explanation. The poll did not ask Scottish voters how they intended to vote on May 7. Perhaps, and admittedly they wouldnt be the first, the SNP only sought answers designed to give succour to their troops. The SNP are desperate to capture the Labour vote in Scotland. If they are not to be regarded mainly as the preferred alternative in Tory heartlands at general elections they need to park their tanks on Labours lawns. That may be a more difficult challenge than the recent polls suggest, and it may explain why the SNPs leadership is flagging up the possibility of an SNP coalition with the Labour party in the House of Commons to keep the Tories out of Government. Vote SNP and we could support a Labour government, teases Stuart Hosie, the SNPs deputy leader and their main man (for now) at Westminster in comments he made earlier this week. To me, this smacks of cynicism at least, and hardly an argument based on any driving political principle. Since Labour will be the only alternative party able to form a government, and if you despise the Tories as the SNP would like us to believe they do, surely the mantra should be vote Labour to keep them out. But that will not happen. The SNP consistently fight Labour because a fairer, more prosperous country is not their priority. Their priority is a border between Scotland and England. That is why the SNP exists. The stakes are high at the next general election and every vote not for the Labour party in Scotland, or anywhere else in the UK, makes a Tory government more likely. How can that possibly be Mr Hosies government of choice? Mr Hosie is right, the SNP could join a government coalition, and it would be up to the majority party to make sure the tail was not again wagging the dog. Hopefully, at last, the powers-that-be in the mainstream parties will respond sensibly and sensitively to the political debate taking place beyond the hallowed corridors of Holyrood or Westminster. Where he is not right is to suggest that the SNP would be a beacon of progressive politics in Westminster unless, of course, he is about to promise a change of political direction. Mr Hosie cites Scotlands free university education as evidence of progressive politics. It is not and though the myth is repeated constantly it is no truer for that. Progressive policies by almost every definition involve wealth redistribution in favour of the poorest. Simply put, a universal policy like free university education, which benefits the better off to the same extent as helps the poorer, is not progressive. Indeed it should be considered regressive since it is funded at the expense of around 140,000 further college places, often the preferred educational option for those less inclined to go to university, and often from less well off homes. Mr Hosie is right too when he says the SNP have pursued popular policies. Indeed they have but universalism comes at great cost to those dependent on the services of hard-pressed local authorities, the elderly who cannot afford to supplement their home help provision, and the students deprived of college places. That is the price to be paid for mistaking universalism for redistributive, progressive politics. Mr Hosie wishes progressive policies for English people too. Even less reason then to risk leaving them to the mercy of a Tory government. In September the overwhelming majority of Scots voted against the break-up of the UK because they understood the merits of staying together. Even if the oil price recovers the risks of breaking up remain the same. Every Scottish politician will say a fairer, more prosperous Scotland is their priority. Progressive sounding rhetoric will not pay the bills. Only actions and outcomes matter. Roll on May 7.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 14:53:32 +0000
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