‘At least we're not those guys' is a strategy lacking in inspiration

The National

16 hours ago

Proud socialist and trans ally Christina McKelvie will be succeeded in Holyrood by a member of a right-wing and viciously transphobic Labour Party – and Reform UK came a close third with more than 7000 votes, solidifying proof that Nigel Farage's party will undoubtedly return a number of MSPs at next year's Holyrood election.
Ultimately, though, the most depressing element of all was the utter lack of inspired campaigning from the two biggest parties. The SNP's campaign relied entirely on the premise of 'we're not Reform', while Labour's was all about 'we're not the SNP'.
Successive front pages of the Daily Record featured messages from John Swinney telling voters that Labour can't win, so vote SNP to stop Reform, and Anas Sarwar telling voters that Reform can't win, so vote Labour to stop the SNP.
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Swinney's proved to be far more embarrassing, in that it was ultimately exposed as completely untrue – Labour ended up taking the seat and Davy Russell is Holyrood's newest MSP.
(Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)
But the messaging from both the SNP and Labour throughout this campaign was that of two parties devoid of hope or inspiration or any real meaningful ideas to actually improve people's lives. Both relied on telling voters 'at least we're not those guys'. And consequently both parties lost thousands of votes compared to 2021.
Many both within and outwith the SNP have remarked in the days since the by-election that it was a mistake for John Swinney and his party to stake their campaign solely on being the anti-Reform party, and I think they're partially right.
Regular readers of my column will know that I'm a strong advocate of parties on the left – particularly my own party, the Scottish Greens – tackling Reform UK head-on by offering a genuine alternative to the far-right bile and duplicitous snake oil being put out by Farage and his team. At next year's Scottish Parliament election, it'll be the Greens who are best placed to stop Reform from returning MSPs via the regional lists, and I believe we should be shouting this from the rooftops.
Nonetheless, this strategy only works if the alternative on offer is one voters genuinely believe in. It only works if voters who are scunnered with mainstream parties selling them false promises election after election believe that the party they're voting for will materially improve their lives.
It's not good enough to just say 'it's between us and Reform' – especially if that turns out to not even be true – you have to build an alternative to Reform that voters can be excited to get behind.
It's also not good enough to just talk the talk – you have to walk the walk as well. That means being able to enact meaningful change in the Scottish Parliament (which, for smaller parties like the Greens, means co-operating with other parties and striking deals to implement our policies).
But it also means living by your principles and refusing to vote for budgets and other motions which will hurt the people you're supposed to represent. It's a fine line to balance, but a crucially important one to ensure voters trust you to get things done, and that you'll also stand up for them when the going gets tough.
Beyond just 'we're not Reform', the SNP had very little substance to offer in this by-election campaign. The party's billboards in the constituency celebrated the return of Winter Fuel Payments – a worthy and important policy after the payments were cut by the Labour Westminster government, but that's merely a return to what last year was just the status quo, it's not a way the Scottish Government is actually making things better for people.
The SNP can't keep pointing to free prescriptions and tuition forever – voters in Scotland don't want to know how their lives are better than those of their neighbours south of the Border, they want to know how they are better today than they were five years ago.
It's a genuine struggle to think of any policies the SNP has implemented in the current parliamentary term that have genuinely improved the lives of people across Scotland which didn't come from the Scottish Greens.
So it's little wonder that, in a constituency crying out for change, the message of 'it's us versus Reform' failed to resonate.
The fact is, Reform are on the rise whether we like it or not. We'll have Reform MSPs elected across Scotland this time next year, and the way things are going Farage will be prime minister come 2029.
It's not good enough for us to just sit back and let that happen just so we can say 'we told you so' – we have to do everything we can to stop the rise of the far-right because it's no exaggeration to say that people's lives will depend on it. But the way we do that has to be by offering a genuine alternative.
We need to use the full powers of Holyrood to tax the rich and redistribute wealth to fund our public services.
We need to return our NHS – one of the greatest successes of socialism in the history of the UK – to its original purpose of free, publicly funded, accessible healthcare for all.
We need to desperately reform the regressive council tax system to radically reduce the amount paid by ordinary people and increase that paid by land barons and millionaires.
All of these are policies well within the competence of the Scottish Parliament, if only our politicians had the ambition to get on with it.
Not only would they genuinely improve people's lives across Scotland, but by demonstrating competent government and a real alternative we could build a far more sturdy case for independence – the real key to unlocking the even more radical changes needed to transform our society.