SO that’s the British Labour Party conference been and gone. The symbolism of holding it in Liverpool, whether deliberate or not, must have some of the old guard squirming in their seats. The announcement by Derek Hatton, former leader of the rebel Liverpool City Council, that he has rejoined the party 33 years after his expulsion, must have sent shivers down a few spines.

Hatton, it should be remembered was surcharged and banned from office by the Thatcher government, along with 46 other Liverpool Labour councillors – then expelled from his own party for refusing to implement Tory spending cuts. And that was before anyone had ever heard of Tony Blair and New Labour. So before Scottish Labour politicians – from all wings of their party – denounce the SNP for failing to resist Tory cuts, they should ponder their own history.

In his famous – or infamous – speech to the conference attacking one of his own councils for trying valiantly to resist Tory austerity, Neil Kinnock praised those Labour councils who went along with Tory cuts. “They had to make hellish choices. I understand it. You must agonise with them in the choices they had to make – very unpalatable, totally undesirable, but they did it. They found ways.” He was cheered to the rafters by the conference.

So forgive my cynicism towards Labour politicians when they attack the Scottish Government for working within the constraints of the budget set by Westminster. Even John McDonnell, as the finance chief of the Greater London Council in the 1980s, after initially taking a stand against Thatcher, was ultimately forced to cave in and to carry out a major programme of spending cuts under protest.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been heartened to see authentic socialists such as John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn rising to the leadership of the Labour Party. Compared to Blair, Brown, Darling, and Milliband, they’ve been a blast of fresh air. As a left-wing internationalist, I want to see progressive change everywhere whether in Brazil or Bosnia-Herzevogina– both of which have vital national elections taking place this coming Sunday – or in other parts of the UK beyond Scotland’s boundaries. And when Jeremy Corbyn proclaims himself ready to enter 10 Downing Street within a year, I wish him well.

Unlike some, I wouldn’t dare sneer at his claim. Politics has become a high speed roller coaster ride and anything could happen. A Brexit-fuelled economic slump could bring down not just Theresa May but the Tory Government. But if Corbyn and McDonnell are serious about wresting power from the Tories they are going to have to work with the SNP and others. In the past hundred years, only three Labour leaders have ever won an overall majority at Westminster. Right now Labour’s Achilles heel is Scotland. For decades, the party could rely on delivering 45 to 55 Scottish Labour MPs to the House of Commons. Now they’re down to seven with no sign of any serious recovery.

At last week’s conference, Scotland barely featured. In his keynote speech where he made some powerful points denouncing capitalism, Corbyn talked about the Israel Palestine conflict. He talked about Saudi Arabia’s murderous war in the Yemen. He talked about Myanmar. He talked about Ireland’s problems with Brexit. But apart from a fleeting side-swipe at the SNP, he had nothing to say about Scotland. It was as though the last five years had never happened. With its relentless focus on British solutions, it was a speech that could have been delivered pre-devolution.

His call for a “green revolution” underlined that tendency to forget about the existence of a Scottish Government. At the heart of the plan is a massive expansion of wind generation, including a doubling of the number of onshore wind farms. A couple of days earlier the Scottish Climate Change Committee reported that Scotland has already succeeded in decarbonising much of its electricity production and now has to turn its attention to greenhouse gases associated with transport and land use. Scotland now generates twice as much electricity from onshore wind as England, even though our landmass is substantially smaller. But that advance has been double edged. It has divided communities, damaged peatlands and other ecosystems, and impacted on the landscape. Contrary to Jeremy’s forecast of hundreds of new jobs, it has provided little employment beyond the temporary construction phase. What Scotland needs now is not a doubling of onshore wind turbines but an own energy and climate change strategy directed from Edinburgh rather than London. Many people in Scotland will be resistant to a Westminster energy strategy that seeks to meet its own carbon emissions targets by putting more pressure on Scotland’s landscapes and natural resources.

With half of Scotland supporting independence, the constitutional future of the UK could not be entirely avoided. In an unguarded moment during a pre-conference interview, Corbyn whipped up bit of a stushie when he gave the impression he would be open to a second independence referendum. Corbyn may not be an ally of Scottish independence but at least he is an honest democrat. Not so Richard Leonard, who rushed to the media to shoot his party leader down in flames. “I can make clear today that the next Labour manifesto will oppose another independence referendum,” he insisted.

It is a strange historical turnaround that the Labour Party in Scotland is more hostile to Scotland’s national rights than the party south of the Border. That’s partly because Labour south of the Border has had a mass influx of hundreds of thousands of new members who are not steeped in old-fashioned British nationalism. The Corbyn upsurge came too late for Scottish Labour. By 2015, Labour had put itself so far beyond the pale that there was no substantial influx of new members. Most of the progressive left had backed Yes and were horrified by Labour’s alliance with the Tories to prevent Scotland’s independence. Many had already joined the SNP or the Greens. So there was little left over for Scottish Labour, which remains dominated by an old guard with a deeply conservative attitude to the preservation of the UK.

Scottish Labour may well ensure that the party’s UK manifesto opposes an independence referendum. But in the real world, it will make not a whit of difference. First, because the right of nations to self-determination as upheld by the United Nations does not give a veto on the larger, more powerful nation. The only mandate that counts is that authorised by the people of Scotland. And second, because Labour has virtually no chance of forming a government in the House of Commons without the backing, formally or informally, of the SNP.

These days Ruth Davidson seems to have taken a rest from her daily tirades against an independence referendum. Understandable given her UK leader long ago abandoned the day job. Sadly, Richard Leonard has stepped into her shoes. It may win him some Tory converts. That will be little compensation for joining Wendy Alexander, Ian Gray, Johann Lamont and Kezia Dugdale on the ten-year roll call of failed Scottish leaders, tripped up by their blinkered Unionism.