In seeking to put as much distance between it and the SNP as possible, Labour is alienating potential voters in Scotland
Writing for the Scotsman over the weekend, Jon Curtice of Strathclyde University had a dire warning for Labour: “Rather than beginning to puncture the nationalist balloon, Scottish Labour is if anything falling even further behind the nationalists in the polls.”
Labour’s problem is that they are playing to the Tory tune. In seeking to put as much distance between it and the SNP as possible, the party is effectively alienating pro-independence supporters who previously voted Labour. In the process they are choking off the only viable option to a stable Labour-led government that can go on for a full Parliament.
Politics has changed – and potentially for good. The UK is fractured; but rather than embracing Scottish voters and seeking to tie the SNP to the difficult decisions to come, Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are slowly prising the Scottish-England border apart.
All of that aside, what of the content of the SNP’s manifesto, which Nicola Sturgeon today declared to be ‘bursting with ideas and ambition’?
At its heart is a commitment to bring an end to austerity. What it dubs a ‘modest’ spending increase of 0.5 per cent a year would, the manifesto argues, enable at least £140 billion extra investment in the economy and in public services. On the basis of an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Labour could potential sign up to such a plan and still meet its fiscal targets.
On housing, the SNP commit to the construction of 100,000 new affordable homes a year each year and to increasing the minimum wage to £8.70 an hour by 2020 (Labour has committed to increasing it to ‘more than £8 an hour by October 2019’).
Restoration of the 50p top income tax rate mirrors the commitment made by Labour. It would also be difficult to find a Labour politician willing to argue against an increase in the Employment Allowance, or to support the £3 billion cut in disability support which, the SNP argues, ‘threatens to cut the income of a million disabled people by more than £1,000 a year’.
For the rest of the day, politicians of the major parties will be doing their utmost to undermine the SNP. In reality, however, the differences between the SNP’s plans and Labour’s are not as stark as some in Miliband’s circle might have you believe.
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
55 Responses to “The differences between Labour and the SNP are smaller than you think”
Tommo
The SNP extremists want to destroy the UK. I assume Labour do not.
That’s a pretty big and fundamental difference.
Julia
Having seen some of the comments below I don’t expect that the sensible theme of the article will get through to some.
The values of the Labour Party and the SNP have significant overlaps. The majority of SNP members were once members and voters. I changed to the SNP at the time of New Labour for example. I would expect many to understand that..
The political class in Scotland have a deep resentment of the SNP based on the belief that they have stolen their voters.
However that is all about to become history. The Labour Politicians in Scotland are about to be wiped out because they refused to listen, I am confident that the Labour Party of the UK and the SNP will work constructively together without the intolerent branch office.
When you have a Party of the left with 104,000 members in Scotland and 8,000 members of the Labour Party in Scotland the public are telling you something.
When the SNP win a majoity of seats at Holyrood in a PR system the message should be clear.
When the polls are constant in outlining the gap between the voting intent between Labour and the SNP the message cannot be ignored.
When the vote on the 7th. May confirms the polls then it will be too late.
Labour is not my enemy. Why do they hate me for supporting a left of centre party?
I suppose I need to brace myself for the Nazi attack now!
Julia
self determination is a right recognised by every major political organisation. If you do not accept this then please explain how we have increased the countries of the world from 50 to 200 in the last 70 years.
Should every Commonwealth nation still be under London rule?.
The Scots felt unable to alter or reduce the move to neoliberal ideals pushed by the Westminster Parties and therefore increased demand for a fairer society in the only other option open to us – Independence.
If you want to maintain a union then weaken the various independence parties by building a fairer UK society.
Does seeking a fairer society by having free education, opposing cuts in welfare, demanding good healthcare, etc make me an extremist?
Tommo – thank you for making the point outlined in the article so well.
JAMES MCGIBBON
No Julia I give you the facts. You the SNP refuse to use tax powers to alleviate what you call austerity and welfare cuts. The really rich class in Scotland have had council tax frozen. You take money from a real Tory called Souter who benefitted from Thatcher the same Thatcher your SNP colleagues helped into power knowing she would ravage Scottish industry. The SNP were happy to support Thatcher because they thought her austerity would help the SNP. You are certainly not Nazi but nasty.
Julia
oh well, at least I tried.