WITH the departure of Jack McConnell, Wendy Alexander has become the fourth leader of the Labour Party in the Scottish Parliament, as the Scottish Labour leader is quaintly titled – presumably to avoid confusion with anyone else. Labour in Scotland may never be the same again. It is just possible it may never again be the largest party in the Scottish Parliament. If this seems an extraordinary thing to say, consider the Conservative Party.

The Tories are the only party to have won more than 50 per cent of the vote in Scotland. This was in the 1950s at a time when key industries, notably shipbuilding, were in the hands of Tory owners.  The decline of the shipbuilding and the traditional manufacturing base saw the end of the political influence that accompanied it. Labour, increasingly seen as the natural party of working people, was on the rise.  In the 1980s, the rapid acceleration of deindustrialisation and unemployment under Margaret Thatcher, combined with the brutality towards the miners, made the Tory Party unelectable in Scotland.  

It may seem preposterous to compare Wendy Alexander with Margaret Thatcher.  But the new Scottish Labour leader is tied to neo-liberal doctrine that will be her party’s downfall if it continues to deny the ever-increasing spiral of inequality and social debilitation that turbo-charged capitalism brings.  

Scottish Labour is already in steady – if slow – decline.  It won its highest ever vote at the 1966 general election with 49.9 per cent.  At the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections Scottish Parliament elections, Labour won 32.2 per cent of the constituency vote and 29.6 per cent of the list vote.  The figures flatter the party.  It has a disproportionate level of support from the over-60s who are more likely to vote and who are part of that generation which believes Labour best represents the interests of working people.

Labour has another problem. Scottish voters can continue to vote for the party at Westminster elections, for instance, if they are hostile to the notion of independence.  However, may back the Scottish National Party at Scottish elections in the knowledge that the SNP does not to consider the implications of its policies throughout Britain, as Labour must.  So Alexander needs to address exactly how Labour projects its “Scottishness”.  

Shorn of its desire for independence, the core of the SNP’s economic and social ideology is neo-liberalism. However, it has a real desire to pose as a left-of-centre social democratic party. Since Alex Salmond became First Minister, his SNP administration has reversed decisions on the closure of several accident and emergency units. It opposes nuclear weapons and the plans to replace Trident. It wants to replace the Private Finance Initiative with government bonds. It plans to replace the council tax with a local income tax. It has promised to abolish the £2,000 graduate endowment fee for students and is running free school meals pilot schemes with local authorities.  Meanwhile, following widespread protests from local communities, the SNP-Liberal Democrat coalition controls of Edinburgh City Council has withdrawn support for a review of the city’s schools, which may have led to closures, in the face of widespread protest from local communities.  

Unsurprisingly, the SNP is attracting support on a number of issues. The STUC has responded favourably to the Scottish government’s skills strategy, provoking off-the-record apoplexy among Labour spin-doctors. Opposition parties are highly critical of what Alexander has dubbed the SNP’s  “spend, spend, spend” strategy, arguing that the sums simply do not add up. However, opinion polls are showing an increasing SNP lead over Labour.

So the new Labour leader needs to establish that Labour in Scotland is no mere addendum to Gordon Brown at Westminster and she needs a set of policies that clearly differentiates Labour from the SNP. She must retain Labour’s traditional allies in the trade union movement and make new friends – for instance, among small businesses.   

However, as part of her strategy to re-brand Labour in Scotland as more effective and more “Scottish”, she has appointed Patrick Macdonald, the former chief executive of John Menzies, to make recommendations for reforming the Scottish Labour Party including the “resources required, capabilities necessary and the infrastructure to stay in touch with members and communicate with supporters”.

Party members may wonder whether Macdonald, who earned £492,000 a year with John Menzies, is the best person to understand the issues, history and culture of an area such as Dunfermline, where Labour lost an infamous by-election.  But it is in such areas where Labour must re-build and technical considerations such as resources are not the issue. The vision and purpose of the Scottish Labour Party are the issue.

So how can Labour make itself more distinctive and attractive to the Scottish population?  Wendy Alexander’s problem is that she is an apostle of flexible labour, lean production, low inflation and supply side approaches. Ironically, the SNP also advocates much of this and wants independence so Scotland can compete with the Republic of Ireland in the hope of more foreign investment in the country.  

Alexander, though, is even less likely to support state intervention than the SNP. As minister for enterprise and lifelong learning, she said: “The role of government is to say that, instead of providing a safety net – we can’t guarantee you a job for life – we can provide you with a trampoline that makes you feel confident and makes you feel secure enough to move between jobs.  My entire skills strategy is about making that trampoline.”

The danger is that she may make Labour unelectable in Scotland by abandoning those it is supposed to champion: the low paid, insecure, under-skilled bottom third of our society.  It is worth remembering that, in Britain, 22 per cent of all workers and 33 per cent of female workers are in low-paid employment. Half of all workers earn less than £22,000 a year and have only intermediate or low-level skills, while 35 per cent of workers receive no workplace training whatsoever.
If Labour has nothing better than a trampoline to offer them, they will surely look elsewhere.

From Tribune, 28 September 2007

To subscribe to Tribune at the special rate of £64 per year or £33 for six months, visit our subscriptions page, or call 01635 879 385

Tribune's brand new website carries a selection of articles from the week's magazine, plus exclusive content from special events such as Labour Conference. It is updated throughout the week with new articles and diary stories - so be sure to check back every day.