FOR many of those who campaigned for a Yes vote during the first referendum on Scottish independence it wasn’t difficult to respect the No position of many on the UK Left.

While sympathetic to many of the arguments for Scottish self-determination many voted No from a sincere belief that only by pooling our resources north and south of the border could the Left hope to put an end to the bitter divisions and social gerrymandering that always occurs during a Tory administration.

Working class communities in Glasgow, Dundee and Lanarkshire were no different to those from similar neighbourhoods in Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. Each of these cities had endured disproportionate levels of unemployment, health inequality and de-industrialisation whenever the Tory writ ran. These were simply the tolls that Tory governments exacted to enrich their heartlands in the south-east and to seduce the money-launderers and tax avoiders: The new, model citizens in the world of their dreams.

It was Labour’s tragedy in Scotland that during the momentous months of the independence referendum, the party was led by an assortment of senior figures who lacked the tools or the integrity to make an honest, left-wing case for remaining in the UK. Instead people like Gordon Brown and Jim Murphy as well as their Lordships Darling, Reid, Robertson and McConnell all preferred to sing from the Tory hymn-book during the independence referendum.

As George Osborne wagged his finger imperiously at the Scots, telling them that they couldn’t use the currency and bank whose strength and riches we had helped it to accumulate, these men all stood behind him, wagging their fingers too. Scotland was far too small and reliant on England to be allowed to make big decisions for itself. Scotland was a client state of England and the Labour Party in Scotland was one of its branch offices.

Only the UK’s broad shoulders would help protect pensions, jobs and the NHS; only within the UK could our future in Europe be secured. Well, we soon saw the nature of the Tories’ protection and what they really thought about Europe. But for Brown, and their Lordships, it didn’t really matter anyway. The referendum and their heroics in saving the Union brought lucrative posts in the City and corporate finance.

For these men, each of whom was personally and directly responsible for sending Labour to the edge of irrelevance, the UK had to be saved but only because it brought them titles and ermine and nice jobs advising very rich people how to protect their assets. If they had instead spoken more strongly of the shared challenges faced by working class communities north and south of the border then Labour might have held onto more of its voters. Instead, the conduct of Labour in Scotland disgusted tens of thousands of its core supporters.

The errors of judgment by the Scottish Labour leadership do not instil any degree of confidence that they might have avoided making similar mistakes during a second independence referendum.

But the situation has just deteriorated even further. The concept of a Britain whose shared values can still unite working class communities has long since sailed. A new harsher, fearful and xenophobic Britain is in its place and any left-wing Scottish voters who think this United Kingdom is a realm of equals are deluding themselves: We are all living in the Home Counties now.

A snapshot of this was provided by BBC Radio Four yesterday in its news bulletins and discussion forums throughout the day. Top story of the day was the decision of the UK government to throw its weight behind the expansion of Heathrow Airport.

By the afternoon, as an afterthought, some ancillary discussion was permitted on what this might mean for The Regions, under which, presumably, Scotland is still filed. I’m still keen on hearing the SNP government’s justification for supporting the case for Heathrow beyond taking tens of thousands of its money to sponsor last week’s party conference. I now look forward to them providing similar support (as well as some cash) to provide a rail link between Scotland’s most important city and the airport that bears its name.

The Heathrow story segued neatly into the second item: An interview with Michael Gove, the man who modelled his political strategy on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Here was Gove strenuously denying he had stabbed Boris in the back and having us believe that he thinks Theresa May is Queen Elizabeth I incarnate.

The third item was about the second day of the clearing of The Jungle in Calais of its human detritus. The Home Counties have a disproportionate interest in this, of course, because they don’t want foreign refugees disrupting their nice lives. The only overseas people they are interested in are the ones that will push up their property values and come equipped with bodyguards and blacked-out 4x4s.

The UK government knows this too, otherwise they wouldn’t have bunged the French £36 million to disperse the Calais residents and ensure they’re kept further away from the UK’s shores.

Perhaps one post-Brexit day when we are still moaning about leaving the EU behind someone will ask what pressure was ever brought to bear by this civilised ‘family of nations’ on the French government about its treatment of the human beings who made their homes in the Calais camps. Did anyone representing the UK government ever ask France, one of the richest and most civilised nations in Europe, why they treated these people worse than scavenging dogs?

So, as England’s south-east cheered on the state-mandated kick-out at Calais, what about Scotland? In this country we are facing a social care time-bomb as an increasingly ageing population must soon start relying on a diminishing number of carers. In this country we have thousands of council homes lying empty all over the country and, in Glasgow, a city that has the heart to take people in.

When the campaign for the second independence referendum starts the Unionists will have a serious job on their hands. Ruth Davidson knows it too, which is why she is so hell-bent on preventing it. There simply isn’t a Union to defend any more. There is no Great Britain or United Kingdom. It was dismantled by her own party and been replaced by the United Home Counties. Huzzah.


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