IT has now been more than a year since Keir Starmer replaced Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the British Labour Party.
After taking a hammering at the 2019 General Election, and particularly in the traditional Labour-voting northern cities and towns of England, the party’s upper echelons lost no time saying hasta la vista to the Corbynistas.
Corbyn had been portrayed as the champion of radical left-wing policy. He started his leadership with promising signs of change, such as reading out concerns from members of the public at Prime Minister’s Questions.
However, the novelty quickly wore off as it became clear that these were little more than performative hollow gestures. A lifelong commitment to nuclear disarmament appeared to be dissipate the moment he became leader of the opposition. The very principles which made Corbyn so attractive to many in Scotland are the very principles that seemed to cost him in England.
READ MORE: National readers on why they stopped voting for Scottish Labour
The diluted Corbyn continued to try to balance on this political fence but ended up with only a skelf. Ultimately, Corbyn did not practice what he preached once he was at the top of the ladder.
Now we have the enthralling Sir Keir Starmer. The Labour leader has a lower approval rating than Boris Johnson – how is this even possible?
Like something out of a Tony Blair Christmas cracker, Starmer is pushing the party back to its New Labour “glory” days. The problem with this is that it is not the 1990s – people want something different from what Keir Starmer is offering.
It was evident from the results of both the local government elections down south and in our own Scottish Parliament elections that voters don’t want what Labour are offering. The infighting, constant changes in leadership and disagreement over the fundamental direction of the party are seeing Labour’s vote decrease ever further.
Having the biggest clown of a prime minister in history should be a gift to Labour, but instead we are witnessing the Tories gaining support.
Obviously, Brexit has had its part to play and the lack of a definitive stance from Labour has hurt them badly. Not as badly as the refusal to learn simple lessons, though.
Labour suffer much of the same when it comes to the debate on Scottish independence. I have no doubt that many if not most people who vote Labour, vote for them because they believe they are the ying to the Tories yang and it’s a vote for the left over the right.
The reality is much more complex. If Scottish Labour were honest with themselves, they would see that independence is the only way to end unelected Tory rule forever, end poverty and get better rights for workers, fairer immigration and in general make our society a better place to live.
But they don’t, they sack people who support independence because the Scottish Labour Party are a branch office, they are an extension of what Keir Starmer is doing in Westminster.
I personally think Anas Sarwar did a good job in the debates leading up to the election and is a far more formidable leader of the Scottish Labour opposition than Richard Leonard ever was.
Keir Starmer isn’t going to topple the Tories anytime soon and Anas Sarwar will have to decide how long he is prepared to wait for it to happen.
READ MORE: 'Fatal' tribalism of dogmatists crippling Labour, leading academic claims
With all this car-crash politics from the Labour Party, the SNP should take what has happened to Labour in the last 15 years as a very serious warning as nothing lasts forever. Public infighting, factions, cronyism, bigotry, entitlement, becoming out of touch and taking voters for granted were and are the downfall of the Labour Party.
Now the SNP have just won yet another election and our Scottish Government, and our Parliament is pro-independence. It looks like the SNP are now going to go on and form a progressive government with another pro independence Party in the Scottish Greens.
The SNP have been firm that we are going to have an independence referendum in this term of the Scottish Parliament.
The wisdom of “keep the heid” cannot be overstated. We only need to look to Labour to see what happens if we don’t.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel