What is the point in you ?
You have no autonomy. You have no distinctive Scottish policies. Why are you not just "Labour"?
My late - much missed - father-in-law voted for you all of his life. Raised in a single-end in Glasgow's Townhead; hourly-paid all of his working life (a working life that didn't end until he was 78); he faithfully voted Labour at every turn. Westminster, Holyrood, Local council, Europe. He asked for no benefits, and supported himself and his family for the entirety of his adult life.
He understood where his Labour party came from. A Labour party that gave us the NHS. It gave us the NHS when the country was completely, totally, financially fucked. Because it was sufficiently radical.
Today's Labour party would never have given us the NHS. It would have been too concerned about "affordability". Too concerned about Conservative-leaning voters in the south-east. Insufficiently radical.
Can we just remind ourselves what "conservative" means:
Favouring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
You have been opposing change for quite some time now. You have offered no radical policies for decades. You have given us - among other gems - a deregulated banking system; coughed up extradition protection for our citizens to the US and toadied up to the United States in order to totally fuck up the middle east. In short you have stroked the hair of the neoliberal system, whispering softly in its ear in the vain hope that it will pat you on the head for being a good boy.
I voted for Scottish independence. I voted SNP last week. Have I joined the SNP as a party member?Nope. But the SNP are the only party who are offering something truly radical.
Radical ? Remember that ? Radical : like creating an NHS in times of utter penury.
Dear Scottish Labour - if you want to avoid being a historical footnote you have a way out. Fast-forward to 2020. Five years on, the fantasy-economic dashboard lights are moving from Amber into Green. The Conservative government is crowing about being vindicated. Yes, it was tough - but the economic medicine has worked. Low unemployment, higher growth-rate, low inflation.
You are going to get utterly pumped in 2020. If the English electorate voted for the Conservative party (or worryingly UKIP) after five years of "austerity"; five years of "immigrants"; and five years of "Scots", just imagine the landslide in 2020 when we're told the deficit has been removed, the national debt shrunk, the EU has been exited and the SNP has been annoying the hell out of them at Westminster. Utterly pumped.
Unless...
Unless you get radical. Appeal to people like me. Appeal to the millions of Scottish Labour voters who feel that "we didn't leave you; you left us".
The 70s, 80s and 90s had politicians who persistently resisted the idea of a Scottish parliament. Remember any of them ? They represented constant resistance to the forces of progress (some might call that "conservatism"), but it's the politicians with vision that are now lionised - one of them even has a statue at the top of Buchanan Street. Those conservatives (yes, with a small "c") are barely remembered - and if they are, it's with disdain. Because they were wrong.
Admit it. Admit you were wrong. We're Scottish for heaven's sake - we take pride in education and a really (really) important part of education is learning from one's mistakes. We'll forgive you if you man-up and accept you were wrong. There are a fair few thousand Scots who now accept they were wrong to vote "No" last September. You'll be reflecting, in large part, much of grassroots Scottish opinion.
Admit that the argument against Independence has been lost. Accept that the political nature of Scotland *is* different to the UK as a whole - this is as close to empirical, scientific fact as it's possible to get in politics after all. Drive your tanks onto the SNP's lawn and campaign for a new Scotland. The SNP are currently in the driving seat and have you firmly sat up-back. You can choose to sit there - playing their game - or you can choose to make Nicola turn round and shout at you to shut up. You can choose to let Nicola concentrate on the road in front, or you can choose to distract her by unfastening your seatbelt.
For pity's sake, get out of the back seat and at least make an effort to tussle for the wheel.
Campaign for a Scotland that will have proper government and proper opposition.
Hell, that government might even be you.
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