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The National
8 hours ago
- Politics
- The National
Labour are still in deep trouble despite by-election win
FOR a man whose party had just won a by-election, it was widely expected to lose, Anas Sarwar is not at all a happy bunny. His aggressive and angrily needy behaviour while being interviewed by Martin Geissler on the BBC Scotland Sunday Show will remind fans of RuPaul's Drag Race of the iconic droll comment made by contestant Trixie Mattell when a competitor had a very public and furious temper tantrum after being put through to the next round by the judges but failing to make the top three: "I think that's a lot of emotion for safe." For those not familiar with the show, the comment was a pointed reference to the fact that although the contestant in question had survived that particular episode, the temper tantrum was due to their awareness that they were not on track to win the contest, and as it transpired, they were eliminated not long afterwards. Likewise, the anger displayed by Anas Sarwar was due to his awareness that despite this by-election win, his party remains in deep, deep, trouble, and that trouble is largely of Labour's own creation. Whatever you might think of the SNP's decision to focus its attacks on Reform UK during the by election campaign - and spoiler alert I think it was tactically a disaster - it's pretty rich of Anas Sarwar to go on the BBC, of all media platforms, and accuse John Swinney of running a "dishonest and disgraceful" campaign which pushed voters to Reform UK. Rarely has psychological projection been so manifest in a political interview. READ MORE: Scotland's top doctor warns of climate and pollution public health emergency It doesn't push voters to Reform when you do as the SNP has done and complain loudly that Reform is running an overtly racist campaign. What pushes voters to Reform is when you do what the Labour party and the BBC have been doing, which is to ape Reform's policies, thus legitimising and mainstreaming them, and to give Reform's leader a platform out of all proportion to his political success. The rise of Reform has nothing to do with the SNP, and everything to do with the Labour and Conservative parties and the anti-independence British media, above all the BBC. Of course, Anas Sarwar knows that, he's not a stupid man. He is, however, a politically dishonest man. The very last thing he can do in public is to admit the responsibility of his own party or that of a publicly owned broadcaster to which his party is linked by an umbilical cord in facilitating , encouraging and normalising racist far-right Anglo-British nationalism. Blaming far-right Anglo-British nationalism on the SNP is a new low, even by the base standards of the Labour Party in Scotland. Talking of pandering to the far right, the BBC has revealed that it has drawn up plans to "regain the trust" of Reform UK voters. The plans reportedly include changing news and drama content in order to make the broadcaster's output more appealing to the kind of people who have no problem at all with Doctor Who being a shape shifting near immortal alien who can cross time and space while fighting all sorts of trans-dimensional alien threats and sentient dinosaurs, but who complain it becomes unbelievable when the Doctor regenerates into a woman or a gay black Scotsman. Minutes of a meeting of the BBC's Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee in March, which has been seen by Byline Times, show that BBC News CEO Deborah Turness gave a presentation in which she discussed plans to alter 'story selection' and 'other types of output, such as drama' in order to win back the trust of Reform voters. One of the key members of the BBC's Editorial Guidelines Committee is former GB News executive Robbie Gibb, an arch-Brextremist who was appointed to the board by Boris Johnson in 2021. In 2022, former BBC presenter Emily Maitlis described Gibb as an 'active agent of the Conservative party.' Gibb was Theresa May's Downing Street Director of Communications between 2017 and 2019. (Image: House of Lords) Expect more news reports on immigration and greater prominence given to uncritical coverage of Reform UK politicians. They should just go the whole hog and rebrand BBC Question Time as 'An Evening with Nigel Farage'. Gibb was also previously the director of The Jewish Chronicle. Gibb fronted a consortium of worthies who 'rescued' the paper in 2020, but who claim either not to know, or are not saying, who put up the cash. In his November 2023 BBC Declaration of Personal Interests, Gibb stated that he was the 100 per cent owner of the Jewish Chronicle. After Gibbs' departure in August 2024, the newspaper was forced to apologise for publishing a series of fabricated pro-Israeli stories about the Gaza war. In drama, you can now look forward to cosy murders set in English country villages where everyone is white and heterosexual, and period dramas about a plucky colonial doctor, who repeatedly references how Scottish he is despite his upper class English accent, serving in one of the British Empire's African possessions, where over the course of a six episode story arc he rescues the benighted natives from their pagan superstitions and Arab slave raiders and eventually succeeds in winning the heart of a beautiful English rose, the daughter of a wealthy duke who heads a household of forelock tugging salt of the earth servants. I should stop here in case the BBC thinks this is a story pitch. Compare and contrast, surveys have shown that the BBC has lost most public trust in Scotland, in no small measure due to the Corporation's blatantly one-sided coverage of Scotland's constitutional debate, but the BBC shows no interest in trying to win back the trust of Scotland's independence-supporting viewers and listeners. The reason for that is that, despite his constant claims to be 'anti-elite,' Farage and his ilk pose no threat at all to the British establishment, they are merely the latest iteration of that establishment's attempts to subvert and control impulses to push back against it.
The National
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Reform UK's success in Scotland? You can blame the media for that
The SNP have comfortably won a council by-election in West Dunbartonshire with 1331 first preference votes, well ahead of the second-placed candidate who picked up 919 first preference votes. Worryingly, that second placed candidate was standing for the hard right Anglo-British nationalist Reform UK party – or should I say – Nigel Farage's private limited company. Labour fell into a poor third place, with just 770 first preference votes. The Tory vote collapsed, with their candidate receiving just 87 first-preference votes, falling into a humiliating fourth place behind the LibDems and just four votes ahead of the Scottish Greens. Again we see the phenomenon of Reform UK, a party which has very limited local organisation in Scotland, and no Holyrood policies to speak of, performing well in a Scottish election. READ MORE: Why the Clydebank by-election is a landmark moment – like it or no This is entirely due to the uncritical platforming given to the hard-right by the UK media and is a perfect example of how Scottish domestic politics are being deformed by our immersion in a UK media which is naturally focused on the much larger and politically more conservative England and in which Scotland is paid lip service at best. As always with Scottish council by elections, turnout was painfully low, at just 25.3%, which is only around 2954 out of 11,657 eligible voters. The real winner in this election, as is typical in council by elections, was apathy and lack of interest. But given that there is usually very little advance publicity given to council by-elections, even some people who are politically informed and engaged will not have voted simply because the didn't realise a by-election was taking place. (Image: PA) Nevertheless, unlike opinion polling, these are real votes in a real election and as such give an indication of the relative state of play of the various parties. There does seem to be some evidence for the view that in real votes, Reform UK is performing rather better than it does in opinion polling, a picture which was confirmed in the recent local and mayoral elections in England. The SNP's vote is holding up well, in line with opinion polling which suggests we are on track in May 2026 for another SNP victory and most likely a pro-independence majority of MSPs once the Scottish Greens are taken into account. The handful of opinion polls which have shown Alba as being likely to win some seats in next year's Holyrood election are not backed up by this by-election, in which Alba managed a paltry 51 first-preference votes, leaving them in second last place ahead only the socially conservative anti-LBGT anti-abortion Scottish Family Party on 25. No one expected Alba to win this by election, certainly not Alba themselves, but such a poor showing contributes to the impression that Alba's hopes of becoming a significant and electorally successful independence party died along with its founder. Where are ye Davy? It seems that Anas Sarwar is not the only Labour politician in Scotland who hides from public scrutiny. Davy Russell, Labour's candidate in the Holyrood by-election in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse Scottish Parliament seat, called following the death from cancer of the sitting MSP Christina McKelvie. Russell failed to show up for a hustings in the constituency this week. The event was held in a Hamilton church and hosted by the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, where members quizzed candidates about their views on nuclear power and weapons. The SNP candidate Katy Loudon, said Russell had also failed to respond to her request for a TV debate in the run-up to the vote on June 5. Speaking in a video posted to Twitter just after the hustings at which Russell was a no-show, Loudon said: 'I've just been to a fantastic local hustings at St John's Church tonight. 'I've already challenged Davy Russell, the Labour candidate, to a TV debate and I haven't had any reply. He's not here either this evening. 'Where are ye Davy?' She added: 'Voters deserve to hear their Labour candidate defend his party's record. So where is he?' Collette Bradley, the Scottish Socialist Party candidate in the by-election, accused Russell of 'running scared of the public'. She said: 'I wasn't the only one angry at the Labour candidate's refusal to turn up for this public debate, which SCND took the time and trouble to organise, advertise and apparently invite him to, not once, but repeatedly. 'What has he got to hide – apart from Labour's devotion to nuclear weapons of mass destruction that squander £205 billion while one-in-four kids in Scotland start life in poverty? 'Or their continued arms sales to Israel so the Netanyahu regime can slaughter innocent Palestinians in a hospital? Or Labour's cuts to the incomes of pensioners, children, workers, sick and disabled people, local services like school buses? "Come to think of it, no wonder he went into hiding, in case the public asked him questions about Labour's betrayal of every principle its founders stood for." If Labour were on track to win the next Holyrood election, this is a by-election they would expect to win. The failure of their candidate to engage in the campaign process suggests that the Labour Party have privately already thrown in the towel. Just a year ago Labour looked as though they were going to coast to victory at the next Scottish elections, 10 months of a Labour government of Keir Starmer has dramatically changed Labour's fortunes in Scotland. With one unpopular far-right pandering decision after another, the Labour Party have comprehensively betrayed those who voted for it in last summer's Westminster General Election in the hope of change from the corporate cruelty of the Conservatives. Labour now look set to go down to a historic defeat, their only grain of solace coming from the fact that the Tories appear likely to be facing a near extinction level event as they are replaced as the nasty party by a party which is even nastier. This piece is an extract from today's REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug. To receive our full newsletter including this analysis straight to your email inbox, click HERE and click the "+" sign-up symbol for the REAL Scottish Politics
The National
08-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
The real reason John Swinney ditched SNP's 'independence convention'
What should be a solemn day of reflection on the evils of the past and the alarming rise of comparable evils in our own time has been turned into an infantile Anglo-British nationalist display of the glorification of British militarism and nauseating royalist sycophancy – not to mention the near deification of the deeply flawed and racist Winston Churchill. Any day now we can expect Keir Starmer to announce that he will intercede with the new Pope Leo XIV in order to get Churchill elevated to sainthood. It speaks volumes about the woeful state of British broadcasting that a silent livestream of a chimney on a Vatican roof was for a while the most insightful and intelligent thing on British TV news. What Scottish independence convention? First Minister John Swinney has turned his back on the idea of holding a Scottish independence convention with representatives from civic Scotland and all the pro-independence political parties prior to the next Holyrood election. However, he stressed that the SNP intended to bring the idea of independence back into the centre of Scottish political debate, something which many see as increasingly urgent given the rise of the hard-right English nationalist Reform UK party, which on current showing appears set to sweep to power in Westminster following the next General Election. The First Minister insisted that a convention is not the only way of bringing independence back to the fore. John Swinney at the SNP's Holyrood 2026 campaign launchThe SNP is in a far more buoyant mood than it has been for the past couple of years. The damage caused by Operation Branchform is largely in the past, with no criminal charges being brought against former first minister Nicola Sturgeon or former party treasurer Colin Beattie. A court case is pending against former chief executive Peter Murrell, but as someone who was always essentially a backroom figure who never held an elected position, any political fallout from a future court case will be far more limited. In addition, the Labour party has done the SNP the immense favour of destroying itself with a series of unpopular policy choices – which show no sign of abating. Labour, which a year ago was confident of forming the next Scottish Government, now looks set to return their worst showing in the devolution era. The SNP is no longer tied by an umbilical cord to the Scottish Greens, allowing the Scottish Government to cherry pick some of the Greens' more popular policies – such as abolishing peak fares on ScotRail services – while distancing itself from other policies which attract greater negative attention in the press. Meanwhile Alba, the party which Alex Salmond set up in order to replace the SNP, appears to be in an existential crisis from which it may never recover. Ash Regan, its sole MSP, is increasingly semi-detached and estranged from the party leadership, which itself is preoccupied by a bitter internal battle for control of the party. Swinney will no doubt have made the calculation that the main beneficiaries of a Scottish independence convention would be the Alba party. The SNP is going to win the next Holyrood election and doesn't need help from other pro-indy parties to do so. However, he realises that the chances are that Alba will have no MSPs following the next Holyrood election and will lose its two councillors – both of whom were elected on an SNP ticket – at the next local elections. Alba will then go the way of other Scottish micro-parties and decline into irrelevance. By turning his back on the idea of an independence convention, Swinney calculates that the SNP will not suffer much political damage, but he can hasten the demise of a party which has devoted itself to attacking the SNP since it was founded. Politics can be brutal. This piece is an extract from today's REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug. To receive our full newsletter including this analysis straight to your email inbox, click HERE and click the "+" sign-up symbol for the REAL Scottish Politics
The National
24-04-2025
- Politics
- The National
No great new ideas came out of anti-far right summit
Although it's to the credit of all those who participated, no great new ideas came out of the proceedings. Rather, it was a diagnosis of the problems that we can already see exist. People are angry and disenchanted with politicians. Politics has become polarised and ill tempered – there is little tolerance for opposing views, and a widespread feeling that politicians are all the same and only in it for themselves. Too many people have become detached from the political process as they feel it doesn't make much of a meaningful difference to their lives. Those who participated included Anas Sarwar for Scottish Labour, Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie from the Scottish Greens, Alex Cole-Hamilton for the Scottish LibDems and Alba's Ash Regan. It was to the credit of all of them that they were prepared to put their political differences to one side, at least for a day, in order to focus on a much bigger problem. The Scottish Tories did not participate as they are far too busy chasing far-right votes and thus are part of the problem. The problem itself, in the shape of Reform UK, held a press conference outside the meeting during which they predictably complained that they're the real victims here and that their billionaire funded party with its millionaire private school educated leadership is challenging the 'elites'. Unfortunately there were few concrete proposals on offer from the attendees, but it's probably unfair to have expected much. The rise of the far-right is a global phenomenon, driven by tech media algorithms, the yawning and ever-widening chasm between rich and poor, the capture of political parties by corporate interests, a media which is itself ultimately owned by those same corporate interests and which is all too willing to act as a mouthpiece for far right figures and their talking points – and in the case of some social media platforms, actively promoting far-right propaganda and misinformation. Facebook and Twitter in particular are toxic stews of malice and ignorance. All of these issues are bigger than the powers that the Scottish Parliament possesses and as such Holyrood has only a very limited ability to tackle them. A case in point was the press questioning put to the summit's participants, questioning which was more focused on which toilet a trans person should use than on the inability of young people to find stable and rewarding jobs, secure housing, and their radicalisation by social media. You might think that our media would have more pressing concerns than how to check the genitals of people who just want to pee in peace. Still, the summit was a start. Actual fascists demonstrated outside the meeting, that perennial staple of far right Anglo-British nationalist extremism. Manky Shirt Man himself, the Holocaust denying Alistair McConnachie and a small gaggle of his racist pals – including former BNP organisers John Robertson and Max Dunbar – were there holding banners demanding mass deportations now. Zonal energy pricing? Talk of a zonal energy market has become popular recently. A zonal energy market would mean different areas of the UK would pay different rates for their electricity, based on local supply and demand. The idea is especially popular in energy-rich Scotland, where it's claimed that a zonal UK energy market could result in Scots having some of the cheapest electricity bills in Europe, something which would encourage many to change their gas boilers for electric powered heat pumps and go a long way to reducing carbon emissions as well as promoting energy security. Octopus Energy has claimed that with its massive wind powered electricity generating capacity Scotland could have the 'cheapest electricity in Europe' and could even have free power at times if zonal pricing was introduced in the UK energy market. Unlike electricity generated by fossil fuels, renewable generated electricity – like that produced by the wind farms dotted all over the Scottish landscape and around our coasts – incurs no ongoing fuel costs, and no need to import fossil fuels whose price is subject to the vagaries of the international markets. Once the capital costs of installing the necessary infrastructure have been covered, the sole cost is the relatively minimal price of maintenance and upkeep. Wind farms harvest free and infinite energy. However, due to the current structure of the UK energy market Scots are paying higher energy bills in order to keep electricity prices lower in other parts of the UK. Energy policy is reserved to Westminster. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is reported to be considering the introduction of a zonal energy market but the plan is likely to meet stiff opposition as it would probably result in consumers in south east England paying more for their electricity as it would no longer be subsidised by consumers in the rest of the UK. However, Miliband appeared to rule out the idea if it resulted in higher electricity prices in some parts of the UK, telling LBC Radio: 'I'm not going to take a decision that is going to raise prices in some parts of the country. That is not what I'm going to do. 'Honestly, this is about reforms to cut prices for people, that is my absolute bottom line here.' Sorry Scots, it doesn't matter if your country is literally the powerhouse of the UK, pumping out vast quantities of cheap electricity, you're going to continue to pay some of the highest electricity bills in Europe in order to keep bills lower in London. It's one of those Union benefits they keep telling us about. Speaking on BBC Scotland Debate Night, pro-independence activist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch urged people to get angry about the energy crisis saying: 'What the Highlands have got is energy. 'Massive, massive amounts of renewable energy – the profits of which are going everywhere else but the Highlands. 'The Highlands should have no energy bills, they've got so much potential. 'There's so much potential here, but because of the pricing of energy in the United Kingdom, which is a Westminster responsibility, we end up having renewables priced at the expensive rate of gas.'
