Just as the SNP sweeps to utter domination of the Scottish presence at Westminster, the future of Scottish nationalism must move to a rejection of Westminster rule as illegitimate. That is the victory paradox.
There is no doubt that this is the best possible election result for achieving Scottish independence in the near term. The one thing that I believe might have postponed independence for decades, was a Labour Party government of the UK with SNP support, governing as Tory Lite but making the dreadful repressive UK state that little bit less openly vicious, the abuse a little bit more disguised, the wealthy corporate elite less openly triumphalist.
I know that Tory rule is going to be dreadful for many decent people who are struggling to make ends meet, that the heartlessness of benefits sanctions will cause despair and suicide, that asylum seekers will be detained and abused. But Scotland has absolutely rejected the entire Tory system, and the scene is now set for the kind of extra-parliamentary resistance that we saw to Thatcher’s poll tax. We have to refuse to let Westminster do this to people. In this circumstance, those SNP MPs are relevant insofar as they use their platform to help build the popular resistance, not in terms of anything they do in that appalling haw-haw club.
Labour would have lost and we would have a Tory government even if Labour had won every seat in Scotland. Labour’s abject failure was in no sense caused by the SNP, whatever the appalling journalists of BBC Scotland may say or imply. And Labour is now going to underline, still more than the Tories, the urgent need for Scotland to be independent. The airwaves are already buzzing with London comment that Labour’s problem was that it was not right wing enough for English opinion. The next Labour leader must be more Blairite, they say. Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper or Chuka Umunna are touted to fit the bill, they suggest. This is completely a false analysis. If England were given a chance to vote for an SNP style, more left wing, offering then very many of the English would vote for it. But it will not happen. Labour will lurch ever further to the right and it will become undeniable that the Scottish people can only express their political aspirations through independence.
Even the best people are still human, and I have to confess that I am absolutely delighted that the SNP leadership have been neatly removed by this election result from any temptation. Exercising power within the United Kingdom state can be heady and addictive. An insidious agenda was quite blatantly propagated by Alex Bell in Bella Caledonia, a man who has been very close to the party leadership, and who actually celebrated the idea that:
The fascinating story of this election is how the SNP is ‘Britishing’ itself, gently playing down the big constitutional stuff in favour of real power over the austerity agenda.
Mr Bell goes on to make the ludicrous proposition that to support the creation of a small state is in itself a conservative agenda. He is profoundly wrong. To dismantle an aggressive imperialist state is not a remotely conservative agenda. I have frequently expressed the fear that there is a careerist core in the SNP who are more concerned with troughing in the political class and being big-wigs in the UK than with achieving independence. Bell’s insidious unionism – very lightly disguised as support for “utilitarian nationalism” – had the potential to be much more corrosive to the cause of independence than anything which the Tories can do. Fortunately Bell’s thesis is totally stuffed by the election result, and his pseudo-intellectual rationalisations of the status quo can now be safely confined to the dustbin of irrelevance. The SNP has no “real power over the austerity agenda” and has zero chance of gaining any within the United Kingdom.
There is now no course to take but root and branch opposition to the consequences of a Tory rule which Scotland has just declared anathema. The only way forward is now independence and the only route is through a mounting extra-parliamentary opposition over the next few years. I am absolutely delighted for all those SNP MPs, of whom a large number are personal friends. But if you want to remain relevant, you have to forget about Angus Robertson telling you what suits to wear or how to put an approved knot in your tie (yes, that really happened), and you have to inspire the street in the way so many of you did during the referendum campaign.
As for UKIP their supporters will mostly be dead or quite senile in 15-20 years so though they may stir things up a while yet they will fade away like a bad smell.
A referendum on EU membership will also gut them.
I would dearly like to see a true left party emerge like in Greece and now Spain.
Uzbek,
it’s “democracy” (shamocracy). The real thing is in Switzerland and Uruguay, though of course far from perfect yet.
Anyway, of all the parties fielding candidates in my area, UKIP had the most progressive pledges wrt electoral reform – promising PR, Recall, Initiative & Referendum, and restricting postal voting to those that need it. Shame they are primarily about EU and immigration, the progressive message is obscured – but perhaps not completely.
Blair/Brown used to pump up the economy before elections with a couple billion in Tax credit “errors” to generate feel good among their voters, but Osborne has been pumping up the economy with HUNDREDS of billions over the past five years to generate feel good, THE NATIONAL DEBT HAVING DOUBLED SINCE 2010. Poor dumb Ed Balls has paid the price for not bringing this simple arithmetic to the voters’ attention.
BTW – before this devil habba/anon1 confuses anyone with 3.7m UKIP votes per MP seat won – SNP 1.454m/56MPs=26k votes per MP seat won, the Cons are as follows 11,240/330=34k votes per MP seat won and Labour 9,322/232=40k votes.
Dave Hansell
8 May, 2015 – 1:38 pm
Axelrod and Blair furnished and secured a Conservative majority which I anticipated after kicking around the Obama veteran’s ‘happy warrior’ resilience meme and the politics of fear, a fiasco in British society (we don’t need personal psychiatrists).
A cool £600,000 down the tubes.
Some further observations: (Dave Hansell)
All of what you said. But what happens now is that the Blairites in Labour start squealing that the 2015 defeat was due to the policies on offer being too left wing, bring back Tony, paste on a sympathetic mask and suck up to the finance houses even more. It may never again be possible for Labour to pose as a leftwing, egalitarian party except by lying as to its real intentions. New forces are needed now. Time for federalism proper.
The Tory party will now step up its assault on the poor and sick,austerity will rule supreme,the deficit will be balanced on the backs of the poor.
Meanwhile,the old empire mentality will get it jollies off,with renewal of their phallic symbols called Trident.
It was a good result for the SNP a result combined with rise of the Tories south of the border,will inevitably lead to process of independence for Scotland.
Looking at the overall result it wouldn’t have really mattered if all of Scotland had voted Labour,the people of England wanted a Tory government.
the people of southern England who could afford housing wanted a Tory government.
See map, and how I FIFY…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11584325/full-results-map-uk-2015.html
All the losing leaders have fallen on their swords bar one,Jim Murphy and his deputy Kezia Dugdale (better known as Deputy Dug) will remain in office,and I’m delighted that they will.
If there’s anyone who can cut the first sod on the grave of London Labour in Scotland it’s Murphy and his deputy moll.
Meanwhile the old panda joke applies across the unionists political spectrum,and like pandas favourite food they were bamboo-zled.
Tory David Mundell,will probably now become the Secretary of State for anywhere but Scotland.
Ba’al.
I can see this happening. But my point on this issue is that it will only lead to oblivion as the field is already crowded.
Who is going to vote for another right wing party of New Labour/Blairite Mk2 when they can vote for the real thing?
Those who are not that way inclined will simply go elsewhere when it is offered. As has occurred in Scotland.
My view? Let the exclusivists who will not work with anyone because they think the only way to progress is through them commit their suicide. They are a barrier to progress.
Has anyone actually seen this fabled and legendary mirage that is the Parliamentary Road to Progress?
Rejection of Westminster rule as illegitimate. Words to live by.
So what is the worth of this mandate for self-determination? SNP MPs will have fun throwing stink bombs at question time, but the initiative passes to Holyrood. Riaghaltas na h-Alba will gain no autonomy without asserting it. The objective is twofold: contain UK overreach and earn Scottish sovereignty – responsible sovereignty, defined as compliance with the UN Charter, the International Bill of Human Rights, and the Rome Statute. This is a straightforward implication of the Scottish policy “Coordinating international human rights treaty obligations.”
Specifically, in escalating order of provocative intent:
– Enact the ICESCR in Scottish law to void UK austerity policies;
– Legislatively or judicially nullify the Schedule 3 Derogation of the Human Rights Act 1998 (when that action is blocked in UK courts, sue at the ECHR for a declaration of incompatibility against the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001);
– Codify the right to peace with the Santiago Declaration incorporated by reference, implementing declaration Article 7 under the authority of LEGALITY OF THE THREAT OR USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS Advisory Opinion of 8 July 1996, then disarm Scotland of Trident, withdrawing Scottish participation and consent;
– Criminalize torture as defined in the Convention Against Torture to exclude the lawful authority provision and the Crown Act of State doctrine;
– Criminalize aggression as defined in the Rome Statute, explicitly negating bilateral agreements undermining prosecution or extradition.
Put the UK to shame with faithful adherence to peremptory norms, and Scotland becomes a territorially-consolidated Palestine: subject nation of a pariah state, standing for rule of law.
Will IDS remain in the post to enact the welfare ‘final solution’ or will he initiate Tory riot control as Home Secretary, or Tory holocaust as foreign/defence secretary?
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2015/may/08/election-2015-live-labour-and-libdems-crushed-in-shock-election-result
It was sheer hypocrisy for David Cameron to mention “one nation” in his victory speech.
Cameron has been traversing these islands putting the fear of god into voters over a Labour,SNP government,as something illegitimate and sinister.
Backed up by the right wing press who,didnt hold back on their attacks of Nicola Sturgeon and Ed Miliband, at every turn Cameron incited hatred and fear towards Scotland and Labour.
The English electorate bought the lies hook line and sinker,and although political tactics can be admired,Cameron’s divide and conquer through fear,leaves a bitter taste.
What now,the implimenting of the impotent Smith Commission or EVEL,looking forward can Nicola Sturgeon include a mandate for independence in her 2016 manifesto,is it too soon? Or is the public feeling of Scoltland one if wait and see.
Turning to Nick Clegg even within an hour of the polls closing Clegg was espousing,that the Libdems would be the surprise of this General Election.
He was right,just not in the sense he predicted.
No doubt when David Cameron met with HRH,she purred…..Pffft.
8 things you might have missed during the election.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/oliver-huitson/joys-of-free-press
“Classically, a single party ‘State’ that Scotland would become upon independence, would imply no democracy. As Scots will have Hobson’s choice, like Nazi Germany after the enabling act.”
______________________
JimmyGiro
Not so independence for Scotland would see the unionist partie change tactics,and serve the people of Scotland,no longer would they answer to their Westminster masters.
Also the SNP would’ve fufilled their dream of independence,and with all the parties working for the best interests of Scotland,it would come down to who had the most attractive policies,which may not be the SNP’s.
The ramblings of a delusional George Galloway.
“I don’t believe the SNP will take a single seat from Labour,you’d get good odds on that.”
http://munguinsrepublic.blogspot.co.uk
Yes George and according to your logic you’ll keep your own seat.
He didn’t.
The same effect is shown in the first 66 council election results, ie Con wins, Lab and LD losses.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results/councils
Twitter fans mock Ed Miliband by putting his Mil-stone on E-Bay it currently stands a £12.87
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11592654/Twitter-mocks-Ed-Milibands-election-stone-after-crushing-defeat-to-Tories.html
‘What a happy and handsome chappie I am’.
http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2015/5/8/390821/default/v1/cegrab-20150508-164349-186-1-762×428.jpg
‘And I no longer have Alexander and Cable round my neck’.
I can’t understand why Jim Murphy is saying he will stay on as Labour leader in Scotland. He is just one of many unemployed men in Scotland.
Have his American handlers demanded that he finish the job of destroying the British Labour Party in Scotland?
Time now to accept with good grace that there was no unacceptable level of real skullduggery.
The SNP in Westminster will fester on the back benches, ignored by all and sundry, achieving nothing.
If the Labour Party finds a leader who actually represents labour, rather than the state of Israel and the program for national genocide through mass immigration, the Scotch vote will return to its natural home.
‘Parky
SNP 1,454,436 votes 56 seats
UKIP 3,830,029 votes 1 seat
Green 1,138,445 votes 1 seat
you may not approve of UKIP however there are over 3.8 million of them who are not represented at Westminster, FPTP is a total sham and disgrace.’
Why are you comparing data relating to two UK wide parties with the SNP?
CanSpeccy wins the prize for lack of understanding of what actually happened in Scotland last night. 🙂
“Inglan Is A Bitch”.
Reminds me of the first time I heard that on Radio 1 as part of a John Peel session.
Glad to see that Johnny Void is typically energetic and has lost none of his commitment and fervour.
“Already some in the Labour Party want to lurch even further to the right as if Ed Miliband really was the comedy communist some sections of the press protrayed him as. This is a party that just lost dozens of seats to the SNP who want to build council houses, scrap Trident and halt many of the most vicious welfare reforms. Despite what’s staring them in the face Labour still think that being more Tory is the only thing that will lead them to success. They don’t give a shit about the people who actually did vote for them, in Northern England, London and Wales. There is no voice for the poor, at all, and that is the way it’s intended to be.”
https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/
Kind regards,
John
Bevin (2:19pm), yes, very much agreed. John (6:14pm) spot-on. Dave (1:38pm), thanks very much for the explanation. Iain (1:14pm), very sorry to hear you’ve not been well. Re. the UK’s pathologies, they are multiform and it’d take an essay – but I think Craig and many others here, there and everywhere have the critique about right.
Watching BBC Scotland news with Jackie Bird interviewing Nicola Sturgeon on the streets of London. In the background a few English protestors shouting their heads off, lol.
‘BBC
Shame on you
Stop telling people lies.’
Excellent stuff, I couldn’t agree more.
Folk are disappointed, horrified in fact, to see another Tory government. But look on the bright side; a Tory government is the least likely to bend, and therefore the more likely to break … (the Union!) They want to introduce billions of £ of cuts. The SNP have pledged to end austerity. To me, that lays down the battle lines and its win-win for the SNP. Every issue the SNP win will show them as protectors of Scotland and will help Scottish services and the Scottish economy. Every issue they lose is the Tory’s doing and shows that we need to be Independent. Also, Labour might well elect a more right wing leader as D.M. was seen as quite left. Obviously Scotland is actually pulling the SNP to the left, so the divergence between English and Scottish politics grows! Add to that the over-representation (in terms of total votes won) of the SNP compared to England’s small parties (UKip and LDs) which will become a big issue for English voters, demanding constitutional change which will weaken Scotland’s voice in Westminster!
IMO two things need to happen. The SNP need to control the media and the people need to keep their local MP honest. We can organise this. We tramped the streets for them, argued their case, promoted their names. It doesn’t stop here. Independence was out goal and we should be at their door every day making sure they deliver!