WEDNESDAY evening saw the final leaders’ debate of the General Election campaign. And what a pathetic, uninspiring spectacle it was.
Much as you might loathe most of what he said, Rishi Sunak, who everyone thinks is going to lose, was punchy. Keir Starmer, who everyone thinks is going to win, seemed devoid of ideas or inspiration.
An exasperated audience member who was clearly a Tory asked, “Are you two really the best we’ve got to be PM of this great country?”
Of course, he was talking about England. Of course, Scotland was not mentioned once throughout the whole debate. But, the audience member had a point. Neither of these men have it in them to tackle the challenges left by years of austerity, Brexit, and the cost of living crisis.
The good news is that the choice in Scotland is not limited to these two uninspiring specimens.
Voters in Scotland have an alternative in the SNP. Voting SNP is the best way to get rid of the Tories in the seats they hold in Scotland and voting SNP elsewhere in Scotland, rejecting Starmer’s tepid offering, is the only way to keep Scottish interests represented at Westminster and to keep the issue of independence on the table.
If we look at the polls some put the SNP and Labour neck and neck in Scotland and some put Labour ahead but only by a few percentage points and pretty much always within the margin of error. There is widespread recognition that many seats – particularly in the Central Belt where there is a tight battle between Labour and the SNP – could turn on a very small number of the vote.
The contrast with the polls in England could not be greater. Labour is a clear 20 percentage points ahead and is obviously going to win possibly with a considerable landslide.
This should give independence supporters who are tempted to vote Labour pause for thought.
There is no need to vote Labour in Scotland to ensure the Tories are kicked out and Labour are victorious. That’s going to happen anyway. A Labour vote in Scotland will be a wasted vote whereas a vote for the SNP will be a vote for a member of parliament who represents your values and who will articulate them at Westminster.
Voters in Scotland need to decide whether they want an SNP MP who will speak up for Scotland or just another backbench Labour MP who will do what he or she is telt by Keir Starmer and toe the party line.
For heaven’s sake one of Labour’s candidates is an English councillor who has been parachuted in here. Others like Stephen Flynn’s hapless opponent have been caught out working hand-in-glove with the Tories.
Remember the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election? Michael Shanks who won the seat for Labour spent the campaign dropping juicy hints about how he disagreed with the London leadership on several issues and was more in tune with opinion in Scotland. Then look at how he has behaved since he’s been at Westminster. Toeing the party line, even when it was against Scottish interests, and in return being rewarded with a job on the payroll.
Then look at Labour’s offering for Scotland or rather the lack of it. At the start of the campaign their campaign manager, Pat McFadden, was interviewed on Radio Scotland and he could not name a single Scotland-specific policy. I assumed that might change during the campaign. I was wrong.
We are reaching the end of the campaign and there’s still no offering for Scotland.
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On key issues at home and abroad such as the two-child benefit cap and the situation in Gaza, the Labour Party is at odds with public opinion in Scotland and does not represent what you think.
And on independence none of them have any answer to the question of how we address the fact that support for it is still so high, 10 years on from the independence referendum.
They are trying to ignore the question in the hope of changing the narrative so that the issue of independence will go away. If the SNP lose the election in Scotland, they may will get their wish. It will certainly make it easier for Starmer to keep saying no to any discussion about the way forward.
However, if the SNP win the election in Scotland, the issue remains alive, and at some stage Westminster will have to engage with the question of what kind of union this is and whether and how a member nation may choose to leave. When the SNP won 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland back in 2015 everyone, even the late Queen, remarked on how many more Scots there were at Westminster, but there weren’t any more than there had been before, it was just that the SNP MPs, unlike their predecessors, spoke up for Scotland.
The narrative at Westminster over the last nine years would have been very different without SNP MPs. Who would have challenged the two-child cap? Who would have led the fight against a damaging no-deal Brexit?
Who would have led the fight to stop Boris Johnson’s unlawful prorogation of parliament? Who would have spoken up for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers? Who would have ensured the issue of a ceasefire in Gaza was kept at the top of the agenda?
Yes, of course I know that some independence supporters are disillusioned with the SNP and feel that under the leadership over the last few years we have not progressed towards independence in the way we should have done. I share their feelings of irritation at missed opportunities. However, voting Labour or abstaining or spoiling your ballot paper if you care about independence is cutting off your nose to spite your face.
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Westminster is not an ideal vehicle for anything, let alone delivering independence, but the reality is that every SNP MP who loses their seat will be represented as a nail in the coffin of the independence cause.
Labour are going to win in England because they have neutralised any threat they posed to the British establishment and moved to the right to emulate Tory policies.
Do you want to acquiesce in that?
Or do you want to ensure Scotland’s voice is heard and keep the independence dream alive?
These are the questions you must ask yourself when you go to vote next week.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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