THE SNP, and more recently its Green coalition partners, has traded on presenting itself as a decisively more progressiv
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Politics
MLRD — 2 years ago(August 23, 2023 12:49 AM)
THE SNP, and more recently its Green coalition partners, has traded on presenting itself as a decisively more progressive, competent and honest alternative to the dismal and reactionary politics of Westminster.
When it doesn’t live up to that standard it is inevitably due to Westminster or its lack of powers (and sometimes that is indeed the case) — but always it can rely on being slightly “less bad” than the Tories.
Now, even if true, simply accepting the lesser of two evils is a dangerous trap for Scotland’s working class.
But more and more, that argument, when weighed up against the facts and reality of 16 years of SNP domination, seems increasingly doubtful.
Over that period, despite a concerted effort to don the social democratic cloak, working people in Scotland have been subjected to the same policies and the same impoverishment as those under the Tories in England.
Local authorities and public services have faced cuts on a similar ruthless scale as well as the centralisation of powers around the Scottish government.
The decision to cut £36 million from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service — a service which has been underfunded and cut for years already — is par for the course.
The importance of investment in emergency services and in public safety was tragically underlined by the Stonehaven rail derailment and the lives lost.
This decision, at a time of increasing natural disasters and wildfires, is a direct gamble with people’s lives, as well as an attack on jobs.
The small decline in drug deaths is of course to be welcomed, but this only came, along with an increase in investment, after years of increases in deaths and one of the biggest scandals faced by the Nicola Sturgeon administration.
Scotland remains the drug death capital of Britain and Europe.
The news that half of working people are one payday away from homelessness and that millions risk illness through being unable to heat their homes afflicts those in Scotland just as much as in England.
If it were the case that SNP spent every penny and was using every power at its disposal to combat these issues, its stance of blaming Westminster alone might be credible.
SNP governments have consistently underspent massive amounts year on year: £2 billion in 2022; £244m in the last year.
At the same time, revenue-raising and other powers go unused.
The reality is the SNP is quite content with Tory austerity policies because, on the one hand, it bolsters the case for independence and, on the other, the SNP leadership ideologically supports the same economic model.
Increasingly, after years of SNP hegemony, Scotland’s workers also face a similarly unaccountable political class.
As if the scandal engulfing Sturgeon and other SNP grandees weren’t enough, gaffe-prone Lorna Slater is facing pressure over her use of dubious evidence to support privatisation policies.
It is little surprise then that the SNP is now facing consistent media scrutiny for the first time in many, many years.
We are also seeing the first major internal dissension in the impressively monolithic SNP during government, as well as fracturing in the pro-independence camp it established and de facto led.
Humza Yousaf’s anaemic and directionless government limps on in hopes of a rebound and an opportunity to regroup — but there is no guarantee that it will be removed from power any time soon.
At the same time, Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer’s Scottish Labour also represents a paltry offering for working people in Scotland.
Scotland’s labour movement has been the real and effective opposition to SNP austerity and that continues to be the case, especially in the context of increasing industrial militancy.
The labour movement must seize the opportunity to define a radical economic programme opposed to Westminster and Holyrood austerity — and build a movement that can win it in our communities and nationally.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/scotland-needs-real-left-alternative-snp-green-stagnation -
