Labour council collapse spells a one-party state

DO you know who your local councillor is? More to the point, do you care? If you don’t give a fig, you are in good company, because hardly anyone does. But perhaps it’s time we did care – not about the councillors themselves, but about the way things are going politically in our local authorities.

A poll last week made it clear that Labour is on course for a right royal roasting at the council elections in May. The party which once dominated Scotland’s town halls like no other is struggling to get above 14 per cent of the council vote. That’s a poll rating that would embarrass even the Lib Dems.

To compound Labour’s problems, its Tory arch-enemies are on just about double – double – the Labour figure with 26 per cent, while the SNP is almost out of sight on 47 per cent.

The relentless march of the Nationalists will be tempered somewhat by the proportional system used in council elections but the SNP’s lead is now so intimidating it’s hard to see anything but convincing SNP victories all over the country.

Remember when those electoral maps of Scotland used to be coloured red? That seems a long time ago now.

FIRST it was the Westminster map: that went SNP yellow in 2015. Then it was the Holyrood map: that went yellow in 2016. And this year it will be the turn of the council map. It is going to go as yellow as any of the other ones when Scots go the polls in May this year.

The SNP’s supporters would no doubt insist this is hardly a bad thing. After all, it is democracy. Well, yes, up to a point. But is it healthy? Some of Nicola Sturgeon’s opponents used to joke that the Chinese were trying to inveigle their way into the First Minister’s good books so they could really find out how to run a one-party state.

But those sorts of quips aren’t funny any more – not when every tier of our democracy is dominated completely and utterly by just one party, a party which exercises iron discipline over its members. If the SNP does go on to control almost all of Scotland’s town halls, then all those councillors will provide a ready-made army of statefunded, eager footsoldiers for the party, allowing it to make more and more inroads into the areas which have resisted its canvassers in the past.

But it is the long-term implications of this virtual monopoly on power that should really concern us, because this is not just about our elected representatives. If the SNP is in charge of our towns, our cities and our country too, then it is logical for SNP-favouring placemen and women to move into non-elected posts as well.

This is how it happens. SNP supporters – whether declared or not – start to take over health boards, leading charities, quangos and agencies. After all, it is simply human nature. Anyone with ambition in civic or public life will have realised that, if you want to get on, being in with the SNP is the place to start.

It then becomes self perpetuating. As more SNP supporters take on senior roles so more are promoted into positions of responsibility. There will be Nationalists who dismiss this as Unionist scaremongering but I would just direct them to Labour’s dominance of central and west Scotland in the 1980s and 1990s.

IT was well known in Scotland’s urban areas that, if you wanted to get on, you got on with the local Labour politicians. When there were contracts up for offer and juicy tenders to be won, it paid to be friendly politically with those making the decisions. This is how Labour worked then and this is how the SNP is starting to work now.

Scotland is a small nation where many of those who run the organisations running the country know each other. As such, Scotland is too small to be run almost exclusively by one party. Not only are some people and companies excluded from public life and all its contracts but such dominance stifles proper debate and political engagement, too.

Also, such a culture of oneparty rule gives the impression that things aren’t quite right, that the governing party is not being held to account properly and that this is what’s bad for democracy.

As a country, Scotland needs a strong political opposition and, although it would probably be loath to admit it, the SNP needs a strong opposition, too.

Meanwhile there is one crumb of comfort for its opponents. Labour was in this position once, and not that long ago either – and look at it now.

So while Nicola Sturgeon can be forgiven for enjoying her party’s unassailable position in Scottish politics, she should not forget the age-old lesson of Icarus – it is only when you are flying highest that you are closest to the melting heat of the Sun, and heading for a fall.