s rahman edinburgh: Time to reach out to disaffected Labour

 We've seen the start of the party-conference season, and it's time.......



s rahman edinburgh: Time to reach out to disaffected Labour: Let’s reach out to everyone, not as ‘voters’, but as people, like us with a stake in the future …………..let’s not be defensive about how...

Time to reach out to disaffected Labour

Let’s reach out to everyone, not as ‘voters’, but as people, like us with a stake in the future …………..let’s not be defensive about how we see our future in an inde Scotland.  Let us be the ones asking hard questions, putting the others on the defensive next time round.  Like ..how will you guarantee womens’ pensions & retirement age in rUK , or maybe…how will you manage the deficit with low oil prices!  

We know it won’t be an easy ride, but let’s be prepared to take on the likes of the press and the pro UK parties……..let’s start by going to disaffected labour supporters.

Mainstream media continues to demonstrate that the re-elected Corbyn won't have an easy ride, either from that self-same media or his own party. The closing of the Labour party conference 28^th Sept, Liverpool hasn’t shut down the ‘arguments’ and the internal difference. It has merely provided a hiatus…..catch that media mauling, every channel, and the majority of the newsprint. Can’t wait for the weekend onslaught!

This failure of labour to regroup, re-organise and even begin to establish itself as the opposition bodes ill for both rUK and Scotland.

It’s frightening but it has to be acknowledged that the Tory party now has free range in rUK, with the potential that PM May could call a snap general election in  2017: 'back me or sack me: show confidence in my government to deliver Brexit'…… the type of jingoism so beloved by the right wing.

The weekend 25^th Sept saw Ruth Davidson writing in the Sunday Times, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/  appealing for labour support to transfer to the Tories in Scotland since she saw the (new) Tories as moderates ( yes, honestly!) Could this truly come to pass...that labour voters would prefer to see any party but SNP in local and national government?

The lack of Labour leadership...Kezia Dugdale was decimated on Sunday 25^th BBC TV, Sunday Politics Scotland, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019cdqd then subsequently picked up, resulting in more derision…is an addendum to the political instability in rUK labour.

Would lib dems voters follow Labour, with tactical voting, putting party before people and Scotland? Not possible, just think ‘coalition’ again.

Really then, this means some form of right wing government in rUK is virtually inevitable.

So what will it take to get the message out, clear and simple: independence is no narrow minded, petty nationalism, unobtainable and unsustainable due to a lack of oil, and all the old fear based arguments?

Independence is the forward looking option, that recognises the needs and aspirations of Scotland.

Independence is the means to prioritise and deliver those very needs and aspirations as determined here by our own electorate. And there is a role for Labour.

As Carolyn Leckie wrote, Monday 26 Sept The National ...Labour can thrive again .....guarantee itself a glowing future, self governing Scotland

http://www.thenational.scot/author/carolyn_leckie

And was it some fluke that saw Mary Lockhart voted in as a Labour Councillor, Fife on an independence for Scotland platform? What is not to like, to fight for if your political belief is rooted 'labour'? 

The ideology of the right is not the political ethos of Scotland, no matter how often Ruth Davidson calls Scottish Tories…’moderates’.

That crippling austerity programme dreamt up by Cameron et al, now being followed up by May and her government is nothing more than war on the poorest, the least able, and the least responsible for the financial collapse.

And the third placed party here in Scotland, part of the fragmented  rUK labour party?

Please, don’t be fooled by that one seat on the NEC. It’s no more than that.

One seat will not address differences like Trident.

What about immigration? Our stance on that is so different here. Just ask the Brain family!

What about Brexit? Check out that referendum and the result here in Scotland!

And what of those Labour MPs so divorced from and suspicious of the new wave of Labour members?

They are not all left wing spoilers, Momentum wolves in sheep’s’ clothing.

There is rumour that back benchers will begin to produce their own, alternative ‘position papers’ on policy matters, potentially putting them at direct odds with and undermining the shadow cabinet. So, where is the time and energy to devote to policy, planning?

With its focus on trying to recover lost members, and  trying to portray ‘unity’ there is no future

It is surely time then for what remains of the Labour Party here to recognise that the best, the only way, to address issues pertinent to the people and the nation that is Scotland, is not to follow Westminster, but to argue for and then thrive in an independent Scotland.

It’s time in Scotland then not for…’we told you so’, ‘broken promises, unfilled vows’ …but to encourage and show those voters who won’t vote for the SNP and the Greens, that their parties have a vital role in an inde Scotland. 

Afterall, who decried a Scottish Parliament prior to us voting for it?

Who made sure they were ‘in’, they were part of the democratic change, at Holyrood, once it was achieved? (Build it and they will come? Oh yes!)

Who now has more MSPs than MPs?

Think on that and let’s reach out to everyone, not as voters, but as people like you and me, with a stake in Scotland and convince them of their role in an inde Scotland.



Selma is a member, WFI and serves on the National Committee WFI 

http://www.womenforindependence.org