Promises? What this country needs is a dose of reality By EUAN McCOLM
As Sturgeon pledges all things to all people...
The First Minister has been more impressive
OUR ambition for this country is not about flags, said First Minister Nicola Surgeon, a huge Saltire fluttering on the screen behind her. The irony was suffocating. The SNP leader’s speech to her party’s annual conference in Aberdeen yesterday was full of such contradictions.
For the faithful, there was plenty of the whingeing that fuels Scottish Nationalism: the SNP’s record wasn’t perfect but that was Westminster’s fault; the Tories have failed to deliver ‘the Vow’ of more powers for Holyrood; the renewal of Trident is a scandal.
For those watching at home, she offered bland reassurances about public services being safe in SNP hands. Miss Sturgeon wished to be judged on the Scottish Government’s record which, she said, showed competence and dedication to duty.
The message to Nationalist voters was that Scotland could only truly succeed if it was independent; the message to Unionists was that Scotland could only succeed so long as the SNP ran the devolved administration.
In trying to be all things to all people, Miss Sturgeon ended up sounding rather vague.
On Syria, for example, she called for a renewed diplomatic effort to bring peace to the country and defeat the ‘evil’ of IS. But how exactly a diplomatic mission might achieve this objective was not made clear.
Delegates applauded loudly, but one suspects they were only celebrating another opportunity to paint Westminster as a parliament of warmongers.
A few months ago, Miss Sturgeon was keen to present herself as someone who could do business with the Labour Party. Her pre-election message was that the SNP would work with Labour to ‘lock the Tories out’ of Downing Street.
But the General Election did not lead to the ‘progressive alliance’ that would transform British politics and she no longer feels the need to pay lip service to the (preposterous) notion that she might work with Labour.
Yesterday, Miss Sturgeon did not only paint the Tories as monstrous but the Labour Party as split, ineffective and – on nuclear weapons – hypocritical.
One of her great successes in recent years has been convincing many Scots who might traditionally have voted Labour that the SNP carries on that party’s traditions. Miss Sturgeon returned to that theme. Some would have us believe, she said, that we live in a ‘post-political age’ when old labels of Left and Right are meaningless. She did not agree with that.
What’s more, she said, she happened to believe that where one stands politically matters.
Her pitch to those who consider themselves Left-wing was that she stands where they do. Yet the reality is that, in order to build electoral support, the SNP has taken a great many centre ground positions.
The idea of Miss Sturgeon as a Left-wing firebrand doesn’t bear much scrutiny either. When she became politically active in the 1980s, the great political battle of the time was between Left and Right. But rather than throw herself into that fight, Miss Sturgeon preferred to focus her energies on national identity.
The First Minister may wish voters to believe she embodies Old Labour traditions, but the truth is that her politics were forged in a party which, when she joined it, was still thought of by many as ‘Tartan Tories’.
BUT we live in strange times, when whatever an SNP politician says must be gospel. If Miss Sturgeon says she carries the Labour torch, it must be so. Likewise, when she says – as she did yesterday – she wishes to be judged on achievements at Holyrood, it is to be assumed these must be considerable.
Before this year’s conference, there was much discussion of how Miss Sturgeon might deal with the matter of a second independence referendum.
The party’s ranks have swelled from fewer than 30,000 members to more than 114,000 in the past year – and many who joined would like another opportunity to break up the United Kingdom sooner rather than later.
Yesterday, those members seemed happy with the platitude there would be a second referendum when the people of Scotland wanted one. The First Minister knows she would lose a second referendum if it was held tomorrow; her spin that Scots will call the tune sounds so much more impressive than that mundane reality.
Miss Sturgeon has given far more impressive speeches than the one she delivered yesterday; but if the objective was to keep her fundamentalist bravehearts happy while suggesting to the rest of Scotland that a third SNP Government wasn’t in the horse-scaring business, then it can probably be judged a success.
But others at the conference have been less careful when it comes to reassuring Scots about the party’s intentions.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney appears ready to tax middle-class voters.
He said yesterday that, when Holyrood gets full control of income tax in 2017, he would use the same ‘principles’ he applied to stamp duty – which has left many middle-class families with bigger tax bills when they buy a home.
The SNP’s naked desire to control the media is troubling. During a debate on the BBC, MSP Linda Fabiani said it was necessary for Holyrood to seize control of broadcasting regulation in order that independence might be achieved.
A fringe event on the BBC descended into chaos, with members suggesting the Corporation was guilty of creating propaganda comparable to that of the Nazis.
That’s a wild assertion – but it suits the SNP for Scots to believe the BBC cannot be trusted.
Nicola Sturgeon, on the other hand, enjoys the trust of a great many Scots.
But listening to her speech yesterday, one yearned for a little healthy scepticism in our national discourse.