Steph Paton: SNP’s ‘progressive’ ruse is finally being exposed

On the surface, the party sells itself as an ostensibly centre-left entity: progressive in its social policies; a broad church party in its appeals to the Scottish electorate.

In reality however, it has tended to the centre right fiscally and, particularly recently, has opted to promise social progress while indefinitely kicking the can not so much into the long grass as it has yeeted it into the ocean.

The Gender Recognition Reform Bill was facing indefinite delays under Nicola Sturgeon’s (below) tenure until the Scottish Greens pressed it back into the parliamentary process through the now defunct power-sharing agreement.

LGBT rights are, obviously, not the be-all end-all of left-wing or progressive policy positions – but for as long as queer and trans bodies remain on the frontline of an authoritarian culture war, they do at the very least serve as a marker of a party’s willingness to put human rights above political expediency.

Or not, as the case may be. While the SNP have used their decision to raise taxes on big earners to fund spending commitments as proof of their left-wing credentials, parliamentary budgets have brought significant cuts to councils, public services and local governments – and that’s before we even get on to their U-turn on scrapping the regressive Council Tax.

And while the SNP have repeatedly boasted of setting the most ambitious climate targets in the world, they have repeatedly failed to hit them.

There has always been a disparity between how the party has sold itself and the policies it has pursued. And while it could never be denied that Scotland is certainly a better place to live than it would have been under full Conservative or Labour rule, I would argue that selling yourself as at least being better than the most vindictive, hard-right Conservative party in recent decades is hardly the benchmark of success.

After 17 years in power, I doubt the rhetorical discrepancy can survive much longer – and with the election of John Swinney, I’m not convinced the party even intend to keep it up.

It is too soon to say how Swinney will steer the party as both leader and First Minister, but the early days have not given much for Scotland’s left to be happy about.

MAKING Kate Forbes (below) Deputy First Minister has been spun by many as an act of unity, set to bring both sides of the party back together and heal the inevitable divides of being a big tent party that claims to act for everyone – though it has left me wondering which two sides the appointment was meant to appease: the conservative side or the slightly-more-conservative side?

And while the party and its LGBT wing have pointed to the government’s historic record on LGBT equality as reason not to be too concerned over the appointment, it somewhat skips past the fact that the pursuit of equalities legislation and inclusive education was far more internally acrimonious than the SNP’s progressive mythologising would have you believe. And that’s not to mention the fact Swinney has already been more guarded on recognising trans people for who they are.

Likewise, the party’s green credentials are under threat, even more so after the recent scrapping of climate targets. The Ferret has published a report into the lobbying of Swinney and Forbes by former SNP spin doctors who now work on behalf of the oil and gas industry.

I’d say the party’s relationship with oil and gas, from the perspective of an environmentalist, has always been a murky one. But if, as some suspect, this signals a rolling back of its opposition to new oil exploration in the North Sea, it would be devastating.

Given the SNP’s history I am concerned that a rhetorical move to the right, rather aligning words with action, would also be followed by a further fiscal and social move to the right too – one dragging the other along behind it in quiet conformity with a global politics that has shifted concerningly toward both conservatism and authoritarianism.

Perhaps one of the ways that it has managed to maintain this balance for so long has been the overall failure of other parties to successfully challenge the SNP from the left.

The Greens have at least capitalised on the SNP’s failure to follow through on left-wing commitments, drawing more progressive voters to them.

But I wonder, with the superior resources Labour have, what could have been had that party not been so consumed with infighting and its own slide to the right. And then, when they have managed to strike decisively, they have been draped in such entitlement to power in Scotland that they have undone themselves.

Seventeen years in power is, frankly, quite the achievement. But with their power on a shoogly peg, the SNP leadership seems to be searching for a path to challenging the accusations of complacency.

Where once a rare, progressive policy announcement would have helped maintain their relevance (even if, like in the case of their 2017 promise of a state-owned energy company, it failed to materialise), I’m not so sure that will fly now – not at a time when the vapidity of centrism has become more and more apparent to everyone stuck in a system that advocates for the status quo even as it falls to pieces.

I believe the party’s leadership has already signalled which way it will go – but only time will tell.