RED’S NOT DEAD! EUAN McCOLM HAILS DUGDALE’S FINEST SPEECH:
Scottish Labour at its lowest ebb. Then along comes Kezia with the speech of her life. Is this the sign at long last that...
IBRING you shocking news: Scottish Labour is not dead, after all. You may have believed, as I did, that the party was so utterly punchdrunk after repeated drubbings at the hands of the all-conquering SNP that it was on the way out. But in a surprising, impressive speech to Scottish Labour’s conference in Perth yesterday, leader Kezia Dugdale performed a little political mouth-to-mouth. She may not have fully revived the party, but she breathed some life into it.
Apparently after a slick makeover (a ritual previously undergone by John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon), Miss Dugdale looked businesslike and confident. Her message to those assembled was clear and direct, and avowedly Old Labour in tone.
Some, including myself, had believed that while Miss Dugdale was likeable and bright, she lacked the steel to be an effective political leader. Yet there she was, throwing down the gauntlet to First Minister Sturgeon on the issues of free education and chancellor George Osborne’s cuts to tax credits.
The SNP has had huge success in recent years converting what we might think of as traditional Labour voters. But although Miss Sturgeon talks a Left-wing game, her policies are of the centre ground.
Miss Dugdale’s speech was speckled with policies such as action to overturn Mr Osborne’s tax credit plan in Scotland, and financial assistance to young people in care who wish to attend university. This positioned Labour distinctly to the Left of the Scottish Nationalists.
Labour’s MSPs have been stricken by a collective depression for years. The party simply could not fathom out why it lost its political dominance of Scotland to the SNP in 2007 and spiralled i nto deeper decline. Leaders have come and leaders have gone while the SNP’s star has risen ever higher.
But those MSPs – the ones who tell me the party’s out of power for 20 years, the ones who say they are thinking of packing it all in – should feel encouraged by Miss Dugdale’s performance yesterday.
The leader received a standing ovation for her policy on tax credits. Remarkably, it appeared to be naturally occurring rather than orchestrated by party bag carriers.
Of course, Miss Dugdale’s speech does not mean the end of the SNP’s dominance of Scottish politics. The Labour Party remains broadly so unpopular that its fight at next May’s Holyrood election will not be with the SNP over who gets to form a government, but with the Scottish Conservatives over who gets to form the main opposition party.
But at least here was a Labour leader who showed some vision. Miss Dugdale’s predecessor Jim Murphy (to whom she was deputy) was often criticised for indulging in populism. His flagship policy of allowing alcohol to be consumed at football grounds was widely condemned as cheap and unthinking, with critics warning the consequences of such a relaxation of the law would be dire.
MISS Dugdale’s policies, on the other head, appeared far more substantial. Miss Sturgeon may have led the chorus of ‘red Tory’ accusations levelled at Scottish Labour, but those same ‘red Tories’ have shattered the notion that the SNP is a socialist party.
Miss Dugdale revelled in her attacks on the Nationalists, accusing them of lacking sub- stance, of being ‘ a party of bumper stickers and T-shirt slogans’, and describing in some detail how she believed her party differed.
Mr Osborne’s plan to cut tax credits is not only unpopular with his opponents – even Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has joined critics of the move. Yesterday, Miss Dugdale put that particular ball back into Miss Sturgeon’s court by offering to restore the cuts in Scotland.
The First Minister, with all her rhetoric about bad old Westminster and compassionate new Holyrood, will surely have to formulate a serious response to Miss Dugdale’s offer.
Simply complaining about Westminster is no longer enough. If Scottish Labour says it would act in government then so, surely, must the SNP.
The pledge by Miss Dugdale to provide £6,000-a-year to children in care going on to university stands in contrast to the SNP’s free tuition fees for students. Labour’s policy would help some of the most vulnerable in society, while the Scottish Government’s favours the better-off.
It will be interesting to see how the First Minister handles this challenge to her self-appointment as the torch-carrier for ‘traditional’ Labour values.
But while Miss Dugdale signalled to the wider public that the SNP faces a serious challenge on policy, and delivered a speech with much to enthuse Labour supporters, there was one particular issue which will concern aspirational Scots – her willingness to raise taxes for middle-earners would hit families across Scotland.
The SNP has wisely resisted any temptation to raise taxes in Scotland during its time in office. Of course, if the Nationalists truly were of the Left, they would have done so, but the fact is that the party doesn’t dare.
SCOTTISH families, like families everywhere, want to keep as much as possible of what they earn. The SNP’s trick has been to create the illusion of being more ‘progressive’ while not touching tax rates. Yet many will wonder why the survival of Scottish Labour matters. After all, the party took the Scottish electorate for granted for decades. As far as many voters are concerned, Labour’s fall from grace is richly deserved. But for those who believe in the survival of the United Kingdom, a healthy Scottish Labour Party is essential.
Should those who currently support Labour change their votes in future, it would surely be the SNP that would benefit most.
A dying Labour Party haemorrhaging support can only hasten a second independence referendum, with all of the uncertainty that would bring.
When Miss Dugdale stood for the position of Scottish Labour’s deputy leader last year, she said that she lacked the qualities to take on the top job. It was a foolish comment which came back to haunt her when she pitched to replace Jim Murphy.
But what do you know? It appears that Kezia Dugdale might just have the chops, after all. Her speech yesterday was the best I’ve heard a Scottish Labour leader make in a long time – and that’s a lot of leaders and a lot of speeches.
The Scottish Labour Party’s identity crisis appears to be at an end.
It is a Left-wing party, willing to raise taxes to fund its plans. Whether that is the sort of party modern Scotland actually wants is another matter entirely.
The Scottish Labour Party’s identity crisis may be over