While cowards flinch and traitors sneer. I wonder what Keir Hardie, that old Ayrshire miner, fundamental socialist and supporter of Scottish home rule would be thinking about the Labour party in Scotland today following the exploits of the last few weeks. First Gordon Brown insists that David Cameron should come himself to Scotland to debate with Alex Salmond, and is critical of Alistair Darling for standing in for Cameron. Then when we all see Alistair Darling taken apart in his attempt to defend Tory policies, Gordon shares a platform with him to ‘fool’ us into believing they are good comrades. Then once it becomes clear to him, (what has been clear to many of us for weeks) that the Yes camp is growing, particularly within the Labour Movement, he volunteers to be the next Labour stooge to front the Tory campaign in Scotland. He takes centre stage, with Tory back-stage support, to save the neo-liberal union. What a clown, and what a performance. As he himself said, if the Scots vote ‘no’ then the Tories, and David Cameron will be the heroes who ‘sorted out’ the Scots and they will win the UK General Election on the back of that. This will drive forward the neo-liberal agenda and finish off the NHS in England and through TTIP start to dismantle the NHS in Scotland. What is this all about just days before the poll? Grahame Smith, STUC General Secretary describes it thus “This is a political fix constructed in Westminster without consultation with the people in Scotland”. Grahame is right; this is not serious politics it’s a ‘political fix’ or what I would call a gimmick. So what the hell is he playing at? Well nothing of substance really. Gordon is, as usual, playing to his own inflated ego. It is widely believed in Westminster circles that Gordon has great popular support in Scotland and I’m afraid Gordon is unwise enough to actually believe that rumour himself. This rumour is based on the fact that, contrary to all the opinion polls, Labour got a very good vote in Scotland at the 2010 General Election when Brown was put out of office. The belief is that this was a reflection of Gordon Brown’s personal voter appeal in Scotland. The truth is that this vote reflected Scotland’s desperate, yet once more futile attempt, to stop the Tories gaining power in Westminster. The Scottish voters had heard Gordon Brown’s foolish and appalling comments behind the back of an ordinary Labour voter in England when he forgot to turn his mike off and his disrespectful comments about the lady were broadcast. Scots voters thought no better of Brown than voters elsewhere in the UK who heard that. The Scots voted Labour in 2010 in spite of Brown in order to defeat the Tories not because of him. Indeed it was Brown’s inability to get Lib/Dem support which allowed the Tories into power. A year later these same Scots voters gave the SNP an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament. The big question is, what about the thousands of Scots in the Labour movement, not many left in the Labour party, but hundreds of thousands in the trade union movement who still believe in the principles which Keir Hardie believed in? Who in Scottish Labour responds to that need? The Labour party leadership have abandoned these thousands because they have no answers for them in their small neo-liberal world. However the Labour Movement will survive. Its survival will now only be possible in an independent Scotland, but survive it will. We in Labour for Independence urge all those who wish to defend labour values to vote yes, and we will continue to sing “While coward flinch and traitors sneer, we’ll keep the red flag flying here.” Andy Anderson Labour for Independence
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 08:16:40 +0000
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