Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
‘Corbyn bounce’ breathes new life into Labour
On June 8 Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill gave a ringing endorsement to the politics of socialism.
Labour had been written off by many after losing to the SNP in 2015, but less than two years later that has changed. Hugh Gaffney and his campaign team managed to overturn an SNP majority of 11,501, while in Airdrie and Shotts, Helen McFarlane just missed out on winning by 195 votes.
A lot of hard work was carried out by grassroots members and party staff but the unexpected snap election meant it was undoubtedly the ‘Corbyn bounce’ that propelled us to victory here and elsewhere across Scotland. Labour’s manifesto for the many not the few included a £10 living wage, returning rail and post to public ownership, and protecting pensions with the triple lock.
People locally responded to this anti-austerity platform and the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn with enthusiasm.
The result means that the Tories no longer have a majority in Westminster which might help in Labour’s fight against their public sector cuts. Likewise, the loss of 21 SNP seats was undoubtedly related in some areas to their push for a second referendum.
In others it was due to their massive cuts to local government budgets, an ongoing crisis in health and falling education standards in a country that was once held up as a beacon of excellence.
Holyrood now has more powers than ever before, including the ability to tax the rich and redistribute wealth.
However, the SNP Government refuses to use those powers to introduce a 50p top rate of tax despite this being their Westminster policy. That’s hypocrisy.
Locally, cuts are biting in health. In recent years Monklands Hospital has dropped from 527 beds to 477 despite the population growing and getting older.
That’s a direct result of Scottish Government decisions. People are now waiting far beyond the legal guarantee for operations. For many elderly people waiting on hip or knee replacement this means suffering in pain and being unable to keep fit and healthy.
There is a lot of understandable concern locally about education cuts, but again the fault lies firmly with the SNP government. £150m has been cut from North Lanarkshire’s budget since 2007. This, along with a government directive to retain teaching posts, has resulted in cuts to education support staff.
The SNP then tell councils to increase the council tax, on top of the increase already imposed by them, but they won’t tax the rich. And whatever happened to their pledge to ditch the council tax?
When I spoke to voters it was clear many are beginning to see through the idea that the SNP is a left-wing party. Their track record over a decade in government is under scrutiny as is their lack of action to tackle poverty and failure to use our Scottish Parliament to mitigate against Tory austerity.
Meanwhile, Labour will continue to engage with citizens, talking to them about our positive policies for change and building on the green shoots of our recovery as a political force for the workers in Scotland.