So it wasn’t a tsunami, earthquake, tidal wave or landslide – it was all of them and as many other cataclysmic metaphors as you want to throw in. Scottish Labour was obliterated at the polls with majorities in the 10’s and 20’s of thousands wiped out at a stroke with only Ian Murray left clinging […]
Posts Tagged ‘Scotland’
The defeat of Scottish Labour – post rational politics or shifting plates?
May 15th, 2015 by Neil Findlay.
Labour’s SNP Lessons
May 14th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.The cataclysm came and Scottish Labour was obliterated. There are calls for Jim Murphy to go, calls that should be heeded for the good of the party. Yet what exactly happened in Scotland? We’ve visited some of the reasons, but there are wider points Labour needs to take on board from the SNP’s success that are […]
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The Tories won a tactical victory – not an endorsement of austerity
May 14th, 2015 by Mike Hedges.The general election result was not an endorsement of austerity but was a stunning Tory tactical success. The Tories adopted a policy of defending key marginal seats against Labour and UKIP and attacking in Liberal Democrat seats. The strategy worked and lead to a Tory majority government for the first time since 1992. This was […]
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Is Keir Hardie turning in one grave as Jim Murphy digs another?
May 5th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.Last weekend, the Scotsman quoted unnamed Labour sources as confirming that Scottish Labour was effectively abandoning most Labour-held seats in Scotland by deciding to name just twelve seats it was trying to “rescue” from the SNP onslaught. The last time Labour did as badly as this in Scotland was 1931 when it won only 7 seats (though […]
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The new sectarian politics of Scotland and the demise of working class unity
Apr 30th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.Yesterday, canvasing the streets of Stevenston in North Ayrshire, a former Labour voter told me that the only way forward was for Scottish Labour and the SNP to merge. He meant it not as advice but as explanation of why he could not vote Labour. Some are hostile to Labour, others just confused. And even many of those […]
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Is Willie Bain going to be the last man left standing for Labour in Scotland?
Apr 28th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.You’re in a secure military facility and there’s an intercontinental ballistic missile, inbound. The anti-missile batteries have fired and missed. Electronic counter measures cannot dissuade it from its course. You glance helplessly at the blip on the radar getting closer and closer, hoping the blast doors are thick enough, that the concrete bunker is buried […]
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Are the English media fawning over the SNP?
Apr 8th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Are they? Nicky Tyrone seems to think so. Well, to be absolutely accurate he’s talking about the left wing media here. Continuing our exacting theme, while his piece asks about “the left media’s worship of the SNP“, he qualifies this by noting “the slightly pro-SNP slant of the left of centre media“. Idolatry vs a […]
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The rise of Nicola Sturgeon
Apr 6th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Alex who? I always thought the Tories ‘Vote Labour, Get Salmond‘ schtick was as weak as it was pitiful. It’s all very well photo shopping an Ed Milli-band in the former first minister’s oversized coat pocket, but when far fewer people south of the border know Salmond and he’s no longer calling the shots? Well, after […]
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Using public procurement for a fairer Scotland
Feb 18th, 2015 by Dave Watson.More than £10bn of Scottish taxpayers cash goes on buying goods and services in the private sector. This procurement activity could do much more to deliver the Scottish Government and other public bodies policy aims. Last year the Scottish Parliament passed the Procurement Reform Act and the EU passed a new Procurement Directive. These provide […]
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The Pasokification of Scottish Labour is writing on wall unless Labour moves Left
Feb 6th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.There is virtually no parallel for it in modern Western politics except perhaps the election which reduced the ruling Canadian Conservative party to just 2 seats. Ashcroft’s detailed polling of 14 Labour-held constituencies (plus 2 LibDem constituencies with even more dire predictions for their incumbents) is truly dramatic, showing an average 21% swing from Labour […]
