The UK Labour Party is in Denial about Scotland

The Labour Party in the United Kingdom has a long history, the party was founded as a representative of the Working-Class in the United Kingdom, following the kind of Two-party representation system where one party represents “Business” and the other represents the worker. It was founded roughly 50 years after the Chartist movement in the UK reformed the House of Commons making it more representative and much more Democratic. It sought to;

• Give every man over the age of 21, who of sound mind an equal vote, so long as they weren’t undergoing punishment for a crime
• Change the election to a secret ballot to protect the elector
• No longer require a property qualification allowing the people to return any man of their choice
• Payment of members allowing tradesmen, working men and anyone else to run for office without giving up a modest living
• Equal representation for Constituencies so that no one area has a larger say than another
• Annual Parliamentary elections allowing the people to keep the government in check

Now, the Chartist’s got most of that bar the Annual Parliamentary elections, elections are still held every 4–5 years. But the Chartists were massively successful and although mostly known for their Democratic Activism. They did also garner support from working men for their stance against Wage Cuts and Unemployment.

The Labour Party’s first leader and main founder was a man called Keir Hardie. Hardie had a long history within the Trade Union movement and especially a party in Scotland called the Scottish Labour Party which was actually the first Labour Party ever established in the British Isles. Hardie served as the Secretary-General of the Scottish labour Party from 1888 to 1895 when the party was absorbed into the Independent Labour Party which would eventually become the UK Labour Party. The President of the Scottish Labour Party whilst it existed was a man by the name of Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (Remember that name it’ll come up later).

Hardie’s Labour Party was pretty radical for its time mainly aiming for an 8 Hour work day, Breaking up monopolies via anti-trust legislation, Fair rents, work for the unemployed and regulation of housing such as rent controls and homes big enough for the average family of the time. The early days ideology of the UK Labour party can be described as Democratic Socialist, since it aimed to bring in Socialistic reforms without the need for a violent revolution and instead used the Liberal Democratic system of elections to get legislation passed.

The Hardie home turf

Meanwhile in Scotland, Scotland was all steam ahead for Keir Hardie. Hardie being a Scot himself sweetened the tea for the Scottish Working Class family because it seemed on the face of it that they were being reflected in the Leadership of the Labour Party but after decades of Trial by fire within the labour party, the Liberalisation of the Labour party during the Tony Blair years. Scotland was starting to get sick and tired of the Labour party, much of my own family framing them moving away from Labour as Labour trying too hard to get centre-right Liberals to vote for them and in doing that going against the moralistic basis for them to vote Labour ever again.

So, Scotland in 2007 found itself in a situation where Labour family Scots were given the opportunity to vote for another party. A party that represented the Old Labour values that they still held dear but would also promise substantial change. That change came as a wee party called the Scottish National Party.

The Dawn of the SNP

The Scottish National Party was born out of a merger between the Scottish Party and the National Party of Scotland, I know right, Original. The First President of the newly formed SNP was Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, the guy who used to be the President of the Scottish Labour Party when Keir Hardie was General-Secretary.

The Scottish Labour Party of 1888 was Socialist in name and action, fought for much of what Keir Hardie did but also fought for Scottish Independence. Cunninghame Graham was a dear friend to Keir Hardie and they both agreed on Scottish independence fundamentally. However, Hardie was more of the type that was willing to stick it out in the Union for as much as he could help it whilst Cunninghame Graham was much more willing to fight for Independence in a separate party.

The Scottish National Party of today has a shared history with the UK Labour Party, some could say they’re two sides of the same history. The SNP represent the New, Progressive Left with elements of the Old Hardie tradition sprinkled in while the UK Labour Party is stuck in the Blairite, Third-way Tradition.

The Current Day

The UK Labour party under Keir Starmer is hell bent on Scotland remaining in the Union and seems to run with the Naive notion that they can still draw Scotland back into being Labour country. But the fact of the matter is, Starmer is part of the problem why that will never be the case. In Scotland, The UK Labour party got a massive boost from Scotland in the Corbyn days because Corbyn at least represented the Old Left of the Labour party. Now with Starmer trying to kick Corbyn out of the party that he’s been in since he was able to vote, is the equivalent of starting up the digger to dig your own grave in Scotland.

Scotland’s political tradition is very much with the Old Labour side of it, and with Starmer and the Blairites on the front bench. Its extremely unlikely that they’ll get any new traction in Scotland. The SNP have proven themselves over the past 20 years to be a viable opposition to the Tories in Westminster and in the Scottish Parliament they’ve got a proven track record of rolling with popular policy and largely sticking by their word.

Also Labour party supporters’ habit of blaming Scotland for there not being a Labour Landslide is a horrible tactic. By the way, the last time Scotland voted for Labour on mass, we ended up with Blair. With Starmer, Its just another Blair. Nothing will change, Labour for Scotland is basically dead in the Water. With the rise of Smaller Left Parties in England and Wales, Its only a matter of time before UK Labour see’s the writing on the wall that “electability” aka appealing to Millionaires and stay at home wine-mom’s is not the most important thing when running. Staying in touch with your roots is.