The patriot game is one the left can’t win
An otherwise unremarkable tenement flat in the street next to mine had a flagpole installed last year. After a break of a few months, it is once again flying a large Saltire.
The head of an ostensibly left-wing think tank compares Scotland’s place in the UK to that of Elisabeth Fritzl.
A few weeks ago the Scottish Labour party changed its rulebook to include a commitment to ‘the patriotic interest’.
These things aren’t connected other than that they all say something about Scotland’s ‘new political situation’. This is one where the Patriot Game is the only one in town, or rather the only one that anyone seems interested in playing.
This isn’t a state of affairs that anyone on the left, either in Scotland or beyond, should be happy with. Because ‘new political situation’ is simply a euphemism for an upsurge in nationalism, and the Patriot Game is one progressives can’t win.
That the prevailing political trend in Scotland is nationalism is seldom acknowledged. Had anyone managed to copyright the phrase ‘I’m not a nationalist but…’ they could long since have retired on the royalties. Instead, the flag waving and transformation of the SNP into a mass party is attributed to ‘anti austerity politics’, or ‘an embrace of democratic potential’ or other such warm words – anything but nationalism.
Advocates generally deny all nationalist motivation, claiming rather that the SNP deserve support because they will ‘push Labour to the left’ or, bizarrely, help ‘reclaim Labour’s soul‘ . This ignores the inconvenient reality that it is the SNP who have only recently adopted Labour’s plans for a 50p tax rate, having previously voted against the principle.
It took until after the leaders’ debates last week for the SNP to adopt a policy on zero hours contracts. They now support Labour’s proposals word for word. The SNP are widely proclaimed as an anti austerity party despite a governmental record that has seen over 50,000 jobs lost in public services, while they adamantly rule out using any of the tax raising powers they have and boast of having the lowest business taxes in the UK.
The SNP are a ‘radical anti-establishment force’, as anyone who has read the serialisation of Alex Salmond’s memoir in the Scottish edition of Rupert Murdoch’s Sun would know. The SNP are ‘progressive’ in a way that Labour somehow aren’t, having adopted all-women shortlists, some two decades after Labour. And so on. But pointing these things out makes little difference. In today’s Scotland, flags beat facts.
Perhaps this shouldn’t surprise us. Nationalist movements, as Eric Hobsbawm put it, are ‘dual phenomena, constructed essentially from above, but which cannot be understood unless also analysed from below, that is in terms of the assumptions, hopes, needs, longings and interests of ordinary people, which are not necessarily national and still less nationalist.’
Put more bluntly, nationalist movements do not arise in a vacuum. As we can see right across Europe, they do better in hard times. And the last time a nationalist movement said ‘Let’s get rid of the foreign influence and get poorer’ was never.
Scottish Labour’s response to all this has been an attempt at a ‘Clause 4’ moment. The ‘Aims and Values’ statement of the Scottish Labour Party was rewritten by Jim Murphy so that it now has 12 references to ‘Scotland’ or ‘Scottish’ and a commitment to ‘work for the patriotic interest of the people of Scotland’.
It is difficult to believe this move stems from a sense of mission on Mr Murphy’s part. Rather it’s a response to grim polling numbers and an acknowledgement of a situation where arguments need to put more emphasis on saltire than sense. The ‘patriot clause’ exemplifies where Scottish politics is now – to gain permission to speak you have to be seen to be, and only be, ‘speaking for Scotland’. This isn’t progressive at all – it’s the opposite.
The politics of identity seem to have all but displaced the politics of economic interest north of the border. The party arguing that the country wins ‘when working families win’ is trailing badly behind the party that promises to be ‘strong for Scotland’.
The nationalist movement by definition seeks to divide rather than unite and looks to emphasise difference and particularity ahead of common endeavour. Their advance is not something the Left, however broadly defined, should be welcoming.
Stephen Low lives and works in Glasgow
225 Responses to “Nationalism is sweeping Scotland – and progressives should be concerned”
Gary Scott
You don’t know why Labour are losing in Scotland and instead of looking at the party, its policies and its representatives you blame the voters for being ‘nationalists’. To be fair the entire Labour Party has done exactly the same.
There have been warnings over many years that this would happen. Think back to Holyrood and the SNP minority government. There COULD have been a coalition, as Holyrood was designed for, but for some reason there was an agreement not to form one. This decision contributed greatly to the SNP landslide at Holyrood in the next parliament. During these years instead of getting back to grass roots and having a look at itself the party has been managed top-down. Even the Labour response to the Independence proposal, a report two years in the making, was utterly denuded by the party leadership. This meant releasing an embarrassingly short and vague report which left nothing for, then leader, Johann Lamont MSP, to push against independence with.
At any other time in its history the current leader Jim Murphy would have done very well. He is not, however, the right man for these times. This is not helped by the leadership having been out of touch enough not to have seen this coming.
On both the left and right of politics we hear voters complain ‘you couldn’t get a cigarette paper between them’. And sadly, its not completely untrue. Both parties are looking for the centre vote and so must position themselves there. All is fine until someone comes along and sweeps up your voters from the position the party USED TO take. Over the past couple of years UKIP have taken the right wing of the Tories, the old BNP vote and a few Labour votes too. That hasn’t extended to Scotland though, we’re just not right wing enough. Labour, having moved politically, having a policy of seeming non cooperation with SNP at Holyrood (regardless of detriment caused) were losing votes at Holyrood and, to a smaller extent, local councils. Even then these same voters would support Labour at the General Election. This may well have continued but for one thing, the referendum. Not the vote really, most people thought quite carefully about it and, unbelievably, I haven’t heard of anyone falling out over it. No, the problem was that the campaign lasted TWO YEARS! During this time, without consultation, it was decided that Labour was for ‘NO’. The leadership could have easily decided to have Labour for YES and Labour for NO rather than split the party. This led to long time members leaving, councillors resigning the party etc. The official campaign, Better Together, then spent a huge amount of Tory and Hedge Fund money bombarding Scots with anti-Scottish propaganda telling us how useless we were and how we were luck to get handouts and some VERY strange threats from those in ermine about ‘bombing our airports’ and ‘threats from space’ and being called ‘traitors’. This was a daily, dirty drip feed through our televisions and press. It makes the current ‘dirty’ campaign by the Tories look positively friendly. After two years of what they themselves called ‘Operation Fear’ the party wonders where their vote has gone?? Labour MUST have a long, hard look at itself if it is to survive.
Gary Scott
It is certainly portrayed as such but no, this is not the case. Aside from people of many nationalities being supporters the SNP are not a ‘single issue’ party. They’ve governed in Scotland for over 7 years and, relating to racism, has included nationality as an aggravating factor along with racism ie if you are attacked verbally or physically due to being English they will be punished in just the same way as for any other racist attack. There have also been rafts of legislation on Scotland’s great shame, sectarianism.
Gary Scott
Someone needs to invent the ‘sarcastrophe’ so we know…
Gary Scott
I agree. The ‘Rivers of Blood’ headline in The Daily Mail was particularly concerning. When Enoch Powell gave such a speech referring to ‘the black man’ he became a reviled symbol of racism. The article genuinely worried me.
Gary Scott
Must agree with the point about the Internet. Its rough out there, its the reason Godwin’s Law came into being. And, to be fair, the YES voters were/are very much abused online (although not on this blog) but it tends not to get any publicity.