00:00 Allan Armstrong: "Don't leave us with the Tories, please stay. Don't leave us with the Tories." Well, I'll tell you one thing: if there's a no vote on September the 18th, Cameron is toast the next day, absolutely. And the other thing is, even if there's a no vote, it will not appease the Tory right — they will want to come [back] more strongly and push even further, and, you know, punish people of Scotland just for raising
00:30 the issue. But they're talking [of] — look, there's another alternative next year, you've got a chance to elect a Miliband-led Labour government. Now, just have a look at the nature of what that represents. First of all, Ed Balls has made it entirely clear that he totally supports George Osborne's spending limits. Rachel Reeves has made it equally clear she supports Iain Duncan Smith's welfare caps. So they're working entirely within the agenda that's been set down by the present Tory government. But some people say, yeah, yeah, okay, but
01:02 when you've got a Labour government in, then the left can take advantage of that when it starts to fail. Have a look at France at the moment. We've just had the Hollande-led Socialist government in France — who is making most headway at the moment in France? The Front National. It does not follow, you do that. But they'll say, well, Scotland, you've got such a good record as well, this could make all the difference. Well, let's just get two things out of the way. There's only been two occasions when [the] votes of Scottish
01:33 Labour MPs made a difference: the first was in '64 and the second was in the first election in 1974. But I would like to have a look — if you're inviting these Scottish Labour MPs down to help build you what you are looking at [in] Miliband, I mean, I think it's pretty [grim] [?], but you've got to know about the nature of the Labour Party in Scotland. Go back to the Iraq war. There was a big rebellion amongst Labour ranks on the Iraq war — nothing more Scottish [?], but it was much, much smaller. You have a much better [record among]
02:03 English Labour MPs on that. When it came to the welfare cap the other week, where, you know, Miliband and Balls told people, you know — they're like, oh, we've got to vote alongside [them] — there were 11 people who voted against. Only two of those were from Scotland. Two out of 49. The only place [that] had a lower dissident [rate] was Wales, but actually your record was better in England. This is the sort of nature of the Labour Party you've got. Also something else. People down here will probably know that the present —
02:34 the reason why this campaign for self-determination [has] got bigger and bigger probably dates back to the poll tax, when Thatcher tested out the poll tax first in Scotland. I was at that time chair of the Lothian Federation, and I co-chaired the Scottish Federation of Anti-Poll Tax Unions. People resented the fact that Scotland was test-bedded for this reactionary piece of legislation. But what people told me — [that] today there's been demonstrations in London to defend the NHS against privatisation. Well,
03:04 how did you end up with some of the worst privatisation of the [NHS]? [It] was a Tony Blair government [that] introduced — put it through [as] a bill in Parliament that became an Act — bill through Parliament to partly privatise the hospitals, [the] foundation hospital type scheme. How did that get through? There was a rebellion, a big Labour rebellion; the Tories abstained hoping to catch them out; the difference between that passing and failing fell to Scottish Labour MPs who rallied behind Tony Blair.
03:35 Please note that [in] Scotland the NHS hasn't been privatised — even the Labour Party in Holyrood didn't vote for the privatisation there. But these people from Scotland voted, and they've given you what you've got there. So that's where the blame lies there. Also, I remember a Labour Party leadership contest, and there was a socialist, John McDonnell, [whom I have] a lot [of] time for, who emerged as a candidate. Right, he didn't get too far. But if you go to Scotland, when the Labour leadership elections came up in 2010, who were the candidates? First
04:08 there was a man called Tom Harris. If you saw [his pieces] in [the] Scottish papers you would not be able to tell them apart from UKIP — [he's] always attacking migrants. Tom Harris is the UKIP-lite wing of the Labour Party. I think down here you've got Blue Labour, which are very similar. Then we have Ken Macintosh, who's an über-Blairite. And lastly the winning candidate was Johann Lamont, who is very much Miliband's poodle. The left — there was no left in Scotland [that] could even find a candidate. That's how bad things were. Now let's have a look at Johann Lamont.
04:39 What's her record in this campaign? Well, one of the first things she [said is]: if we got rid of [it], we would not allow a "something for nothing" society, we would end universal benefits. She was cheered to the rafters by the Scottish Tory people in Holyrood, particularly Ruth Davidson. And she set up a very well-named committee called the Midwinter Review, and it's about ending universal benefits in Scotland. So
05:10 that's [the] first thing. The next thing she said — well, what did she look for as an alternative? What's the economic model she's looking for? She said: what I really respect is the remarkable international city-state of London. That's Johann Lamont in Scotland saying these things. I doubt many councillors in the north of England, be [it] Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, will be very impressed by that. But how can you say that in Glasgow if you're not somebody's poodle? And whose arguments are [you] using [there]? Lastly, what is her own opinion of Scotland? Again, a quote from
05:41 Johann Lamont: Scots are not genetically programmed to make [political] decisions. So that is the Labour leader in Scotland. And again, another argument, though: well, at least the UK state is a framework which unites the working class across these islands, makes it easier to take joint action together. I'm somebody who does not believe solidarity should be a passive reflection of an existing state structure, and also somebody [who] notices that the main
06:11 reason there isn't solidarity action across the UK are the anti-trade union laws. And yes, they were introduced by the Tories. What did the Blair government do about those? Kept them in place. Has Miliband any idea? Is he going to end [those] policies? Certainly [he] is not. But the only way you could deal with these [is] actually to defy [them] — what the sparks were doing down in London [and] other areas last year. [That] is the only way you can deal with these: active solidarity. But let's go to Glasgow itself. You know, Glasgow [is] often seen as the heartland of the Labour
06:43 Party. How is it drawing workers together? Well, Glasgow City Council used to run a whole lot of services. What they decided to do with these services is run them under things called arm's-length management organisations, so they're no longer directly run by the council. The effect of this means that people — you know, formerly, particularly in Unison [?], were all in, had one employer — and [now] they've got a multiplicity of employers, and they cannot take any form of solidarity action [inaudible]. So not only is [the]
07:14 Labour Party not unit[ing] workers across the UK, it's dividing them even in one city. In Glasgow, people in the same office can't take solidarity action with [each other] because they're working [for] different arm's-length organisations. And Better Together is a premonition of the future: it's an alliance of, as I say, Tories, Lib Dem and Labour. But if you — the next thing, [if] you want to get any further — they also run in seven councils joint
07:45 councils with Tories in Scotland. So my answer to that is: we are fighting on another issue, the issue of Scottish self-determination, a democratic issue. And this issue raises the fundamental nature of the UK. It questions Westminster [and] the House of Lords, it questions the lack of proportional representation, and it questions the deep corruption. These are much more fundamental issues. A diminished UK will no longer possibly have its UN Security
08:16 Council seat; the US will not have its lap dog any more; Trident is also [put in] question. So these are the issues that we are raising, [we] as [the] Radical Independence Campaign and many others. [What] I'm hoping, when people ask people to come [to] some other ones — please make sure you see that the main issue here is the democratic issue, which affects everybody in these islands. And if you vote yes, it's a better future for
08:47 everybody in these islands, not just for Scotland. Thank you.
## Corrections
- "**hollywood**" (twice) → "**Holyrood**". Both uses matter: that the Labour Party in Holyrood did not vote for NHS privatisation, and that Lamont was cheered by the Tories there. - "a labour party leadership contest and **there wasn't a socialist john mcdonald**" → "**there was a socialist, John McDonnell**". A dropped negation that turns his point inside out: the contrast he is drawing is that Scotland's contest had no left candidate at all. - "**ian duncan smith**'s **well-fed** caps" → "**Iain Duncan Smith**'s **welfare** caps". - "the **holland** led **sources** government in france" → "the **Hollande**-led **Socialist** government". - "miliband and **boss** told people" → "Miliband and **Balls**". - "i was that time chair of **the law the federation**" → "chair of the **Lothian** Federation", and co-chair of the Scottish Federation of Anti-Poll Tax Unions. - "the difference between that being passing and **phil fell** to scottish labour mps who rallied behind **tony blaine**" → "between that passing and **failing** fell to Scottish Labour MPs who rallied behind **Tony Blair**". - "**ken mcintosh**" → "**Ken Macintosh**"; "**johan lamont**", "**johan lamit**", "**johannelman**", "**your hand lament**" → "**Johann Lamont**", four different manglings of the same name. - "**tom harris** is the **ukip light** wing" → "the **UKIP-lite** wing"; "**blue labor**" → "**Blue Labour**". - "a committee called **the mid winter** in the **midwinter review**" → the **Midwinter Review**. The joke — "a very well-named committee" — depends on the name, Scottish Labour's review of universal benefits having been chaired by Arthur Midwinter. - "the main reason there isn't **solitary** action across the uk" → "**solidarity** action". - "the only way you could deal with these actually to **define**" → "actually to **defy** [them]"; "what **the sparks** were doing down in london" → the sparks, the rank-and-file electricians of the 2011–12 dispute, correct as given. - "**classical** city council" → "**Glasgow** City Council". - "the lack of **proposal** representation" → "the lack of **proportional** representation". - "**trained** is also up the question" → "**Trident** is also [put in] question"; "the us will not have its **team lap dog**" → "its lap dog". - "everybody in **the years**" → "everybody in **these islands**", the phrase he closes the talk on. - "**scottish touring** people in hollywood" → "the **Scottish Tory** people in Holyrood"; **Ruth Davidson** is correct in the captions. - "the welfare cap ... only two of those were from scotland, two out of 49" — kept as spoken; Scotland returned 41 Labour MPs in 2010, so the figure is his own and is not a caption error. - Marked and uncertain: "I think it's pretty **[grim] [?]**" (captions: "pretty great", which contradicts the sentence); "nothing more Scottish **[?]**"; "particularly in **Unison [?]**"; "any form of solidarity action **[inaudible]**" (captions: "against israel", which cannot be right). - **One date to flag.** He says the Scottish Labour leadership election "came up in 2010"; the contest that Johann Lamont won, against Ken Macintosh and Tom Harris, was held in December 2011. The year is left as spoken.