Thursday May 4 2007 saw the end of Labour's stranglehold over Scottish politics when the SNP became the party in Scotland, following an election campaign where the national question was at the centre of the debate.
The unionists of New Labour gambled when they conceded the setting up of the Scottish Parliament that this would end the desire of the Scottish people for real control over their lives. The settled will of the Scottish would apparently settle for the half-baked Parliament in Edinburgh without power to change so many of the things that blight the lives of working class people. The voters proved them wrong by voting SN in the hope of a better tomorrow. They voted against the replacement of Trident, for the withdrawal of Scottish troops from Iraq, for an end to the council tax and for a referendum on independence. Throughout the election campaign, Scottish first Minister Jack McConnell was hardly allowed to go out of the door without being flanked by the real people in charge, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Voters were warned time and again in patronising lectures of the horrors that voting for the SNP would bring to
In this campaign New Labour was able to rely on the support of almost all of the media in Scotland.
The unionist bias of the tabloids such as the Sun and the Daily Record is particularly obvious but even in papers such as Scotland on Sunday and the Herald criticism of the warmongers and privateers of New Labour is pretty muted.
This was the media too
His master's voice!
Salmond's manufactured image as a radical has been dented by the SP's
acceptance of cash
from bigoted privateer Brian Souter which pretty much ignored the radical left completely. The Scottish Socialist Party's imaginative and timely campaign for free public transport merited hardly a mention.
When both the Greens and the SSP pointed out that the SNP about-turn on bus deregulation might just be influenced by the huge donation they accepted from Stagecoach's Brian Souter, the Green's press release managed the odd column inch, while the SSP was ignored entirely.
Many of those who voted SNP on May 4 also did so despite their proud parade of the business people and bankers who supported it, a role call of the great and good who had been promised by Salmond that their profits will not be under threat under his new administration. They voted against the council tax without realising that the 3p rise in income tax put forward by the SNP does not stack up. This would leave a black hole in council budgets of half a billion pounds, forcing cuts elsewhere. Those who voted SNP in this election are the very people likely to mobilise most vigorous to defend local services across Scotland.
With a minority SNP administration and the limited co-operation agreement with the Greens the most likely outcome at the parliamentary level, Salmond is being forced to continue a left spin.
Not only will a stronger bill on climate change and opposition to the building of new nuclear power stations be pushed up the agenda, but the referendum on independence reject by the Lib Dems looks a stronger likelihood.
These are some of the shifting sands of Scottish politics within which the radicial left, in particular the principled forces which are the Scottish Socialist Party, will be making ready to do battle over the weeks and months ahead. This impressive march on May 7 was ostensibly organised by the unions and "faith groups", though there was not much evidence of the unions having put in the work.
Most of those who marched were immigrant workers in easily the biggest demonstration of UNISON
lic service union
RATER
the Freedom to Stay". Catholic church! seriously,
*ciTizens DON migrants to take place in Britain yet.
The platform were demanding a "pathway to legal status for long term migrants."
*The October 7 coalition, which involves groups such as No Borders and Barbed Wire Britain produced a newspaper demanding "Papers for All, For Freedom of Movement and
The organised left were scarcely present at all - it's pretty shameful to be outflanked by the
This is an issue that needs to be taken more