I’m tempted to say we deserve better but for as long as we
accept middle of the road managerialism then the harsh reality is we don’t. For
with the close of the SNP spring conference today firing the starting gun on
May’s foregone conclusion of an election Scottish Politics has defaulted to
talk of a referendum that seemingly neither the government nor official
opposition wants to fight in the much discussed but far out of sight IndyRef2.
As someone who campaigned intensely for a Yes vote in 2014,
I feel a great sense of sadness and dismay at how much of the energy and
vibrancy that made the Yes campaign so special, unique and a joy to work in has
been managed, curtailed and swallowed up by an almighty machinery at the heart
of the Scottish National Party. Notwithstanding the likes of Woman for
Independence and to a lesser extent the Radical Independence Campaign, much of the
good, painstaking work that brought the debate to the left, enfranchised and
excited the hearts and minds of people in communities and workplaces across the
country has resulted in not too much real and long lasting change of note.
The 2015 General Election saw an unparalleled result in Scotland that no-one predicted, with the collapse of Labour across the entire country also coupled with a weak, business as usual offer from Labour in England and Wales opening the door for David Cameron to return to number 10 as the leader of a Conservative majority. A majority hell bent on systemically stripping away the benefits won by working people across decades with the rolling back of the role of the state and slashing public spending at a level even Mrs Thatcher would find radical coupled with a threat to remove the country from the European Union as an emboldened and strengthening right wing led by Farage and Boris attempt to hammer the rights of trade unions and workers further still.
In the face of such an assault, which will only intensify
over the next few years, what does the Scottish Government do?
The answer
unfortunately is talk a good game while bending the knee and implementing their
austerity further. Nicola Sturgeon commands personal and party support the envy
of most Governments across Europe, yet with the scope to be bold and radical
knowing full well she will return as FM after May, Nicola is instead even more
cautious and managerial than her predecessor. From the reversal of longstanding
SNP policy to scrap the council tax, to standardised testing in schools,
centralisation of colleges, an unaccountable authoritarianism at the heart of
the justice system, a systemic recruitment crisis in General Practice, the
refusal to ban fracking and the slashing of council budgets the reality of SNP
government falls far short of the rhetoric and this cautious approach now
appears to be nesting into the demand for Independence.
For the summer of conversation to kick-start afresh the vision for Independence the First Minister speaks of is meaningless without a mandate from the people of Scotland in May to hold such a referendum, and after hearing her today insist they would handle a deficit in an Independent Scotland in much the same manner successive Labour and Tory governments have in Westminster I fear for the outlook of a second Yes campaign.
Yes climbed the polls to rest at 45% support not through a
strategy of continuity and managerialism but through radicalism and bold
direction that had Scots connected with the realities of our political system
to a degree which was the envy of the world. In order to win any future
referendum, these radical ideas and cast iron policy discussions need to be at
the forefront of the argument for a cessation of the British state. Voices of
the likes of the Greens, the SSP, RISE, RIC, WFI and LFI are more valuable now
than they were in 2014’s referendum. Now is the time to be bold and forward
thinking, for Scotland’s people and our public services cannot afford to wait
for anything else in the face of an emboldened Tory majority.
An independence referendum mark 2 is our leverage, we must take full advantage and ensure it remains at the centre piece of the anti-Tory offensive that Scotland will give us all a mandate to pursue.
