Campaigning in Edinburgh South East,
Scotland is a different country
by Colin Fox - 12/05/2010
1. The Scottish political landscape has 'changed utterly' and as the full implications of a Tory Government - albeit in coalition with the Liberal Democrats - sink in the famous democratic deficit returns. Scotland has been lumbered with the very Government it most rejected. The questions begin; how will the cuts in public services the ConDem Government promise impact in Scotland where a much bigger proportion of our GDP depends on them than elsewhere in the UK? What price will the Liberals pay for putting the Tories in power? And will Labour's opposition amount to anything more than rhetoric and pleas to 'wait for a Labour government!'.
2. Labour's General Election vote in Scotland confounded all expectations. It went up not down as the polls had predicted. Turnout was up and almost one million people voted Labour. This result was in stark contrast to England and Wales where there was a 6.9% swing to the Tories from Labour.
3. Despite presiding over the worst financial collapse in 80 years and unemployment at a 16 year high virtually all Labour MP's in Scotland saw their majorities increase. And despite running the most feckless General election campaign Labour, whether by accident or by design, stumbled upon
the vote winner in Scotland - fear of the Tories!
Such is the widespread revulsion at the prospect of another Tory Government 'reigning over us' that Labour has been propelled to the frontline of our defences. Heaven help us!
4. The SNP, Lib Dems and even the dreaded Tories all anticipated Labour's vote shattering North of the Border. It certainly deserved to. Labour's record in Government was sickening. Their brutal neo-liberal economics and warmongering was allied to the promise to cut £100bn from our public services and with it the worst assault on living standards of working people for a generation. New Labour precipitated the worst inequalities in Britain since records began. Blair and Brown, the worlds neo-liberal attack dogs, heralded free market capitalism and military aggression at every turn. Privatisation of public services was not something New Labour shunned. Cutting taxes for the rich not something they avoided - Corporation tax rates under Gordon Brown are half what they were under Thatcher! Militarism and imperialism were not alien to them.
5. The SSP anticipated flak for standing against MP's like Alistair Darling on the grounds that we might 'let the Tories in'. In the event we didn't get any. His majority for example almost doubled.
6. One factor in the Tories annihilation here may well have been the negative impact of their odious billboard messages. There were numerous reports from up and down the country of them being defaced. The one where Cameron threatens to take away the benefits of the unemployed for 'refusing' to work [something Labour hasn't ruled out incidentally] attracted especial 'attention'. The Tories still do not appreciate that such sentiments are anathema up here and not just amongst their implacable foes in the working class.
7. Another factor that might explain how Labour assumed the role of legitimate force to stop the Tories is that Westminster elections are all about London. The metropolitan media dominate these contests and effectively set an agenda which derails their relevance to Scotland. The ridiculously facile TV 'Leaders' debates were politically irrelevant to Scotland and Wales since health, education, criminal justice, transport, culture and social services are all devolved matters. Furthermore no mention was made of the impact of the brutal cuts proposed for our public service or the ongoing military occupation of Afghanistan. This was because all three TV parties held the same neo-liberal warmongering views. The same fear of the Tories taking over is plainly not felt so much in Holyrood elections.
8. All 10 SSP candidates were well aware that these would be difficult elections in which to win votes. The media again ignored our message even though it was in such a newsworthy contrast to the three warmongers. Our public statements went unreported, our press releases ignored and our activists airbrushed out of the picture. You could easily have concluded that the SSP was not standing such was the paucity of coverage we received.
9. We worked hard to gain coverage of our election launch. We had 10 local campaigns with candidates and activists all gaining valuable experience for the future.
In Edinburgh South West we had a very lively campaign. We secured only 319 votes [0.7% of the vote] but this was not for the want of trying. We held public meetings in Gorgie, Oxgangs(2), Wester Hales and Dalry on the theme 'Stop the Cuts and Bring Home the troops' with local anti cuts campaigners sharing the platform and all attracted new members to the party. We conducted campaign stalls every day and carried out canvassing at weekends to find out what standing the party had in the eyes of voters. This was an immensely valuable exercise. We were invited to all 6 hustings and we put over our case very well at all of them [almost 700 people attended these in total]. More than 75,000 SSP leaflets were delivered to households right across the constituency. We raised £4,000 in donations from party members and sympathisers. And we now have 30 people in the constituency with which to establish a new SSP branch.
10. The threatened cuts in public services and the occupation of Afghanistan continue to be the most important political issues. These therefore remain the two political priorities for the SSP and we can make further headway rebuilding the party by working hard and getting involved in those campaigns and others like them.