Democracy needs a battle of ideas

Labour must swallow its pride and listen to the voters if the party is to be a power in the land again

It could reasonably be argued that spending time analysing the electoral fortunes of a party with just one MP in Scotland is a waste of time.

After all, this is hardly the first election in which Scottish Labour has been trounced at the polls.

As our new batch of MPS make their way to Westminster today only Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) will represent a Scottish constituency with a Labour rosette.

He will take his seat alongside 48 SNP MPS, six Conservatives and four Lib Dems. In total, 205,169 fewer voters placed a cross for Scottish Labour compared with just two years ago. That’s a staggering 8.5 per cent loss in vote share in 30 months.

It’s not hard to see why. Labour wanted to talk about their radical manifesto but most voters wanted to talk about Brexit and indyref2 – two key constitutional issues that Labour does not have a clear position on.

And then there’s Jeremy Corbyn himself. It matters not a jot whether Mr Corbyn is a good man of high principles – he’s not electable. And Jeremy Corbyn was never electable in Scotland. Dogs in the street could tell Labour’s executive committee that. But they didn’t want to listen.

It all matters because the ideas matter.

Scottish politics needs ideas. It needs energy. It needs a focus on education. On health. On social care. On transport policy. And without an effective Labour Party some of those ideas are not heard or championed or tested.

Even the most ardent SNP supporter would have to concede that winning 48 out of 59 Westminster seats is a sign of the weakness of other parties as much as the strength of its own.

Labour must now reflect. And it must realise that principles and ideology might look good on paper – but that is pointless unless they can be put into practice.

Still Mr Corbyn insists that Labour “won the argument”. If this was winning the argument, what would losing the arguments have looked like electorally?

Caroline Flint, rejected by the voters of Don Valley, said that response should not be “Corbyn without a beard”.

Labour can be a force again but compromise is required. And a leader must be found who can connect with voters. Without this it could be another 20 years before the young socialists of today win a general election.