If the theory goes that British Politics is becoming increasingly presidential in style, with the focus less on the parties and ever more on individual leaders themselves then Alex Salmond has taken the theory and turned it into a successful art form.
If British Politics is becoming increasingly presidential in style, with the focus less on the parties and ever more on individual leaders themselves, then Alex Salmond has taken the theory and turned it into a successful art form. He is not content at just being a leader but has managed to embody Scotland’s anger and opposition to the Conservative-led government in Westminster.
When even Peter Oborne, writing in the Telegraph shortly after the Scottish elections in May, dubs the first minister of Scotland a “brilliant politician”, you have to sit up and conclude he has a strong case to be considered as the centre-left politician of the year.
Undoubtedly the sheer scale of his victory and the manner in which it happened in May, breaking through a system designed to prevent the nationalists dominating the Scottish Parliament, while at the same time seeing off all three of Holyrood’s main opposition leaders will be seen a high watermark for Salmond.
But it’s what he’s been able to achieve which has been so impressive as opponents struggle to figure out how to respond in his wake. Cameron, Clegg, Osborne et al in London have sought to restrict spending and oppose the idea that government spending can play a major role in bringing an economy out of recession.
However, the UK government’s decision just days after SNP victory to provide the Scottish Government with immediate authority to borrow at least £300m annually from the Treasury to help boost Scotland’s economic recovery was not only a recognition in Westminster of the realities of the SNP mandate – it was also a boost for Salmond’s continued case that Government spending has a major contribution to dragging the country out of its economic malaise.
And then there is domestic policy, with Salmond so often at ease and fending off criticisms as being too costly of polices such as continued free tuition for Scottish students and the abolishment of all perception charges, which the SNP leader has used as an attempt to fight off the nasty Conservatives south of the border.
But most of all, through Alex Salmond’s achievements, what was once a pipe dream for many, namely independence for Scotland, is now closer to being achieved than ever. It is a threat which opponents seem slow to respond to as they turn in on themselves to consider what went wrong for them in May.
When Alex Salmond resigned the party leadership in 2000 after his first 10 years in charge, his suggestion that his party could form a government in Scotland seemed someway off, yet he was right to predict it. With a lack of any strong opposition, few can be 100% confident that Scotland’s most dominate politician with the communication skills to suit will not pull of independence.
The term “big beast” get’s branded about in politics perhaps too often, but for Alex Salmond it is perhaps the best description for him. He now dominates Scottish Politics in a way that no one has perhaps since Donald Dewer, and what’s more, when we consider the future of the UK it’s a dominance that is set to continue.
Scotland’s first minister continues his master class in how to stoke up grievances within people over Westminster and the direction the coalition is taking the country and use that to his advantage.
54 Responses to “Nomination for most influential left-wing thinker of the year: Alex Salmond”
Gillon Johnstone
Nomination for most influential left-wing thinker of the year: @AlexSalmond: http://t.co/hGk7old by @EdJacobs1985 #thelefties
Mick
Nomination for most influential left-wing thinker of the year: @AlexSalmond: http://t.co/hGk7old by @EdJacobs1985 #thelefties
Fat Bloke on Tour
EJ
I fear you are either having a laugh or you need to do some homework on the subject matter.
AS is not left wing, he is not progressive and he certainly isn’t some form of social democratic icon. He is a very small fish on the look out for a puddle, a political souffle who has managed against all the odds to rise again. He is a right wing populist who plays to the gallery and thinks that political alliteration is all it takes to lead a country.
He leads a party that is small minded, small town and which has small horizons.
He is a fraud of the highest order, his economics would make the Irish blush and he gets away with it because he is Whitehall’s useful idiot and he is not part of the Scottish Labour party. He is doing Dave the Rave’s dirty work, Westminster Tory and Tartan Tory strategy are one and the same –
Independent Scotland
AS gets his puddle.
Dave gets rid of 40 Labour MPs.
As for his policy direction – local bribes, middle class welfare and headline chasing.
His whole economic policy is based on a race to the bottom, lowering Corporation tax not to stimulate investment but to Hoover up loose money from England. Scotland will end up like the RoI, a tax avoidance scam for corporate America. How left wing or progressive is that? It will be the “Laugh a Minute” curve morning noon and night as he undermines the tax base of England.
With the SNP in local ascendancy it means that Scotland has been bought and sold with a Busman’s gold, sorry now Sir Busman’s gold. He is a joke but unfortunately he is joke at Scotland’s expense.
4 years in power, for what?
Nothing to show for it apart from the photo ops.
He does not lead a political party, he leads a personality cult.
So if he is the answer to your question I would suggest you change the question.
Keith Ruffles
@Steve
I see you misunderstand my point, intentionally or otherwise. True socialism does not impose artificial borders between people on the basis of shared cultural heritage or a perception of difference between different groups of people based on little more than place of birth. A worker in Glasgow has far more in common with a fellow blue-collar worker in Leeds or London than they do with a banker who lives up the street, and yet nationalism would have it otherwise.
Let me put it another way. Why does Salmond restrict his socialist dream to just Scotland? Why not Scotland and, say, the left-leaning north of England? Or the whole of the United Kingdom for that matter?
Nationalism – no matter how it’s peddled – is the belief that different groups of people are somehow unable to share their sovereignty on the basis of identity. It’s essentially 19th century politics dressed up as progressive; no wonder its proponents are so touchy when it’s questioned.
@JR Tomlin
I’ve not defended British nationalism once. As I’ve already been at pains to point out, nationalism is a completely discredited political ideology and is completely incompatible with true socialism. Talk about name-slinging and looking stupid…
Luke Nicholas
It doesn’t really matter whether Salmond’s progressive politics are “true socialism”. What should matter to democratic socialists in the British Isles and also in Europe is to try things that work. In Scotland the two hegemonic parties in the electoral system are the SNP or Labour. Both of them have had spells in power in recent years. Now even using dialectics, i’ll put my money on the SNP being more consistently progressive then Labour when in power, every time. In the current conditions, social democracy is the most acceptable form of socialism to the Scottish electorate. It might be written off as old-fashioned public sector corporatism (and John McTernan does that in his recent blog), but it is the winning formula and allowed the SNP to beat Labour in the Glasgow electoral region this year for the first time ever. That’s not to say that social democracy and indeed the SNP don’t have limitations. And I suspect after independence we would see some really interesting debates play out in Scotland as the range of political forces re-adjusts. But socialists in the 21st century must support the right of nations to self-determination and independence, particularly if we are opposed to the effects of globalisation. Gerry Hassan’s latest blog post arguing for a progressive SNP vision of the future of Scottish politics is very persuasive on this front. An independent Scotland has the potential to develop corporatist trade union relations, a social economy and extensive rights for its citizens. The key question for democratic socialists should therefore be, has SNP-governed Scotland in the pre-independence stage moved closer to neoliberalism or further away from neoliberalism? The answer, that Left Foot Forward’s original post recognises, is that under Salmond, despite the references of some commentators here to “tax havens” and the Celtic Tiger, Scotland has actually moved towards a social model that Ed Miliband’s Labour shies away from advocating for England. Let’s not forget that Salmond and the SNP back full pension rights for workers and are implementing a public sector living wage in practice, unlike Ed “the strikes are wrong” Miliband.