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The National
5 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Minorities are being blamed for failures of the UK class system
Oh, there were some workers already on strike in disputes with bosses as well as government; Birmingham bin workers, for instance. Us working-class folk should be in complete solidarity with them, but they did NOT come out on strike in response to calls from fascist fans of that con man Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the alias 'Tommy Robinson'. READ MORE: SNP call out BBC over 'unacceptable' Hamilton by-election programme Fascists did manage to assemble in various places, but they weren't 'on strike'. The number of folk who actually went on strike in response to this ridiculous call for a 'Great British Strike' was zero. From my point of view, it's not just Sir Kid Starver's regime that is corrupt, the entire 'United' Kingdom ruling class is a mass of corruption. There is widespread, justified anger. This was an attempt by fascists to harness that widespread anger for their own advancement. Their attempt ended in abject failure, but they will probably try again. Like all fascists, they seek to blame minorities for things that are in fact failures by the class system. The best way to defeat them is through challenging corrupt class rule with genuine working-class solidarity. Dave Coull Findowrie AFTER nearly a year in office, Labour's betrayal is obvious. Like under the Tories, the poor and vulnerable are again targeted. From the winter heating debacle and failure to protect the Grangemouth refinery, to the plight of the Waspi women and the war on benefit claimants along with the fishing industry, this UK Labour Government is faltering. With fuel bills soaring, especially in Scotland, and more people going hungry, the cost of living is leaving many families unable to afford the basics. Surely any Labour government should be targeting the billions lost each year in corporate tax avoidance and fraud. Indeed, instead of stealth taxes, a penny rise in income tax would bring in billions for the NHS, rail and roads; along with abandoning Trident, Britain's broken-down, American-owned, so-called independent nuclear deterrent. READ MORE: Angela Rayner cancels by-election appearance amid protests Furthermore it's actively rumoured that the UK fleet of Vanguard submarines, which carry the outdated Trident nuclear missile system only 20 minutes from Glasgow, is falling apart! These weapons of mass destruction, at huge expense, do not protect us but actually make us a target! In truth, only a richly endowed independent Scotland (in line with happy and prosperous Nordic countries), in full control of all its assets, can progress towards a fairer, greener and prosperous nation; working with the other nations of the British Isles, Europe and the world. Grant Frazer Newtonmore FOR those who have lived and practised in the 'managed decline' era of our NHS, the Auditor General of Scotland, Stephen Boyle, offered some hope this week. Against a background of continued failure of current political and senior managers to fully address excess mortality and more than half a million anxious people on waiting lists, Mr Boyle informed us this week that in order to remain 'affordable and sustainable', NHS Scotland's governance needs to be strengthened and that reform is urgently necessary. This 'reformation' has been called for from voices in the wilderness for decades now and amounts to this. The multiple levels of a self-propagating, top-down managerialism and political interference in the goal-setting and delivery of care to the sick and the worried well by doctors and nurses has to end. In addition, the constant drain on resources by inflated and non-contributory corporate salaries on health boards and the numerous parasitic panoply of legal and consultancy gravy trains linked to 'marketisation' need to be thoroughly scrutinised by disinterested experts, namely the Scottish public! READ MORE: Ukip plans for 'mass deportation' rally in Scotland 'pathetic' Once again, I and my people call for an urgent national conversation in a national health convention heavily recruited from a breadth of our citizenry and not a perfunctory 'consultation' run by the politicians and so-called experts who have overseen the evolution of the present crisis. It cannot be overstated the extent to which true national 'reformation' policies in all the domains of public services, not only the NHS, will provide a meaningful alternative to Reform UK in Scotland. In the year leading up to the Holyrood elections, I hope to see all patriotic parties provide some kind of vision for the health of the nation that heeds the Auditor General's critique of the malgovernance and mismanagement of the NHS. The well-researched and radical work of Common Weal, the non-party-political think tank, would be a good place for policy-makers to start, and multiple freedom of information requests from individual citizens about corporate remuneration, expenses, procurement, 'time and motion' studies and legal and PR expenditure in health boards could start the 'audit' process that will begin the 'reformation' that is urgently necessary. Lives literally depend on it! Dr Andrew Docherty Selkirk OUR beloved PM described the car crashing into the public in Liverpool as appalling. I've yet to hear him use that word to describe the indiscriminate bombing and starvation of a civilian population. Jim Butchart via email
The National
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
John Swinney and Katy Loudon warn of 'tight contest' in Hamilton
The seat was being billed as a battle between the SNP and Labour, but many are now speculating that Reform are the SNP's main rival after Nigel Farage's party beat Labour in the by-election held in Clydebank earlier this month. Several Scottish Government ministers turned out for a campaign photoshoot on Monday, suggesting the SNP know they have a fight on their hands to hold onto the seat previously held by Christina McKelvie, who died in March. Speaking exclusively to The National, the SNP's candidate Katy Loudon said she was concerned about the support for Reform she had come across on the doorsteps, but added she was determined to push back their rhetoric. "I do think it is a bit of a worry seeing the rise in Reform, we saw that in the Clydebank election, and we're just being very clear we are polar opposites and we're talking about delivery, we are pushing back on their rhetoric and the only way you're going to stop Reform in this by-election is voting SNP," she told The National. READ MORE: Why the Clydebank by-election is a landmark moment – like it or not "We're picking up support for Labour still, for ourselves and for Reform, but we're very much concentrating on what we're doing. "I think it's fair to say Labour have completely lost their way, not only during this campaign, but people have been talking to us about how they feel let down at a local level with some of the decisions the Labour council have made on cutting 8000 school bus places for example from this August. "So it's fair to say Labour have lost their way, but we're not taking anything for granted. We're out to win every vote." (Image: Colin Mearns) Asked why she felt voters were turning to Reform, she said she understood why some people are feeling "politically homeless". "It's something we all need to work on," she said. "It's people who are scunnered with politics, it's people who have been through all those years of Tory austerity who maybe had thought previously in a General Election, for example, that they would give Labour a chance and for Labour to turn around and immediately start cutting disability benefits, taking away the Winter Fuel Payment, not compensating Waspi women, that's angered a lot of people and I can understand why some people are feeling politically homeless as a result." The SNP took the Clydebank Waterfront by-election in West Dunbartonshire with 1331 first-preference votes for Kevin Crawford, but Reform came second with their candidate securing 919 first-preference votes. Farage said afterwards it was proof that Reform are now the main opposition to the SNP in Scotland. READ MORE: John Swinney urges Meta to ban 'blatantly racist' Reform UK advert While he refused to say whether it was not a battle between the SNP and Reform in Hamilton, Swinney told journalists at the town's train station that he was anticipating a tight "three-way contest", warning that the threat of Farage's party is real. He said: "It's a tight contest. It's 10 days out from polling day, and a lot can happen in 10 days. We've been working hard for ages, and Reform's support, it's visible. Labour support is visible, our support is visible, not seeing support for much else. "So that's a three-way contest and we're working hard to make sure we come out on the right side of it." He told The National it was "difficult to call" where the SNP's principal challenge is coming from. He added: "We want to make sure in Christina's memory that we win this constituency, but we also want to make sure we see off the threat from Farage and it's real in this constituency, I'm encountering it on the doorsteps. "I try my best to counter it and to address that."
The National
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Labour's hollow promises leave Scotland ripe for Reform's toxic rise
I've watched our SNP candidate councillor Katy Loudon engage with voters and she's got a warm, personable approach. The local SNP hub is a hive of activity with activists coming and going all day. In the midst of that, there have been a few conversations that were more disheartening, with people who told me that they don't vote any more. At the last election, they voted Labour. One voted Labour because they are a Waspi woman and had high hopes that the pension she'd saved for, and then been denied, would be restored. Another said he's fed up that none of the promises that compelled him to vote have been delivered. READ MORE: Anas Sarwar responds to claim by-election candidate 'can't string sentence together' People voted Labour on the promise of change. They wanted shot of the Tories. Optimism, hope and expectation characterised their choices. They expected Labour to be the polar opposite of the Tories – to deliver their manifesto, to be honest with the people and to govern from the left or at least the centre-left. But they feel like there has been little change. It is more destructive to politicians to raise hope and then disappoint, as Labour have. Nobody expected the Tories to care about communities that have been left behind, and so when that happened it was almost factored in. With Labour it has been different. Into that void step Reform UK. Over the past few months, many have been stunned to see the polling suggesting that Reform's popularity is growing rapidly. A couple of weeks ago, a new poll from True North predicted that Reform would be the official opposition in the Scottish Parliament in the 2026 election – finishing ahead of Labour. Their tactic is clearly to mop up the votes of people who are fed up and scunnered with the status quo. One lady I spoke to suggested that she was going to vote Reform because she didn't like politicians. In other words, they are positioning themselves as anti-everything, the alternative to the status quo. They have no Scottish policies and I have seen no indication of anything they are promising the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. In fact, the online advert they posted last week resorted to dog-whistle, racist accusations about Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar. The utterly abhorrent advert claimed that Sarwar will 'prioritise the Pakistani community' while Reform can be counted on to prioritise constituents. As Sarwar said this week, it questions his identity, questions his loyalty and questions his belonging in Scotland. Devoid of any specific policies or interventions that will do anything to improve lives in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Reform have instead weaponised race and whipped up a frenzy of racism against the leader of Scottish Labour. READ MORE: SNP and Scottish Labour unite to condemn 'blatantly racist' Reform UK advert Reform are exploiting voters' sense of disenfranchisement. Rather than offering any policy to fix the system, they point the finger at immigrants as an easy target. It is simplistic, empty and dangerous. One of the reasons it is doubly dangerous is because the system has indeed left far too many communities behind. The evidence is all around us. It isn't just Labour's failures and broken promises over the past year. Research by Future Economy Scotland last week revealed that Scots' wages have been flatlining since 2008. That means that real average weekly earnings at the end of 2024 were a mere £8 higher than they were in 2008. Only £8. Think how much your bills and costs have gone up in that time – vastly more than £8. Wages have not kept pace. Future Economy Scotland estimates that means average earnings in Scotland are an astonishing £15,000 lower than they would have been if wages had grown as normal since 2008. In stark terms, in 2024, the average full-time worker in Scotland earned £38,464 a year. If earnings had instead grown in line with pre-crisis trends, the same worker would be earning £53,923 today. What a difference that would make to households today. Scots' earnings haven't grown, work isn't paying, more people are struggling to make ends meet. Bills keep rising, making households feel like they can't catch a break. It is the difference between feeling secure, and never feeling fully secure. READ MORE: Labour delay anti-poverty plan amid budget fears of ending two-child benefit cap We know what has caused this – runaway inflation, the energy market, austerity and Covid. Most people don't sit down and do an academic paper on the causes. They just want a break. And the current system is so broken it can't deliver for them. And into this come Reform, pointing to immigrants and blaming them. Apart from the moral horror of that approach, it is also likely to make things massively worse. Scotland's care sector – and we all know about the pressures on that – is dependent on international workers. They are a lifeline. In fact, they make up more than 90% of staff in some organisations. In a recent survey that Scottish Care undertook, 26% of the staffing of those organisations that responded were from overseas. We need to sort out the system, not blame others. Only a total transformation will work. We've seen what the Tories did. We now know what Labour will do. And it is the same root problem – a broken system. Reform will break it further, destroying community cohesion. Put power in the hands of the people through independence and restore democracy, economic security and community power.
Scotsman
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Why Starmer is a gift to SNP – and how Swinney could waste it
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... One year on from his surprise decision to return to frontline politics as leader of the SNP and First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney is one politician, in a largely disgruntled UK, who must be struggling to believe his luck. At the age of 60, after a year away from ministerial office, Swinney stepped up to hold his party together in moment of profound crisis, following the collapse of Humza Yousaf's leadership; and he led it, as he doubtless knew he would, into a night of electoral carnage at last year's UK general election, when Scottish voters desperate to end the Tory years moved towards Labour in large numbers, while the SNP lost 39 of its 48 Westminster seats. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Yet this historic collapse in Westminster representation did not, to the dismay of its opponents, signal the terminal decline of the SNP, following its years of dominance in Scottish politics. On the contrary, the party has now returned to that dominant position, regaining only a few points on its July 2024 performance, but doing so in an electoral landscape transformed both by the collapse of Scottish Labour support from 35 per cent last year to around 20 per cent now, and by the rapid rise of Nigel Farage's Reform, mostly at the expense of the Tories. Keir Starmer's Reform-like rhetoric on immigration could play into John Swinney's hands (Picture: Andy Buchanan) | PA Labour's betrayals Under these conditions, the SNP now has a strong chance of emerging once again as by far the largest party in the Scottish Parliament, come the May 2026 Scottish election; and as the poll numbers suggest, most of the responsibility for that shift lies squarely at the door of the man in 10 Downing Street, Keir Starmer. Instead of building on the modest 34 per cent support that took them to a huge Westminster majority last summer, the Starmer government has embarked on policy after policy that marks a clear betrayal of undertakings made on their way to power, and in some cases might have been designed to rile Scottish voters, from the cancellation of winter fuel payments to the crushing of the hopes of Waspi women. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And most culpably of all, instead of challenging the toxic right-wing narrative which blames migrants and people on disability benefits for the perpetual financial struggles and stress that millions of British households now face, they have actually played along with that narrative, and reinforced it. In that respect, Starmer's ill-judged speech on immigration this week, in which he coined the phrase 'an island of strangers', and declared without evidence that recent high immigration had done 'incalculable damage' to the country, represents a striking new low in the history of Labour flirtation with the political right, and is likely to have disgusted regular Labour voters on a scale that dwarfs any possible gains from Reform. Staunchly centre-left The question of how this rightward lurch by the Starmer government will play out in Scottish politics, though, is one that remains to be resolved. On one hand, the forces that are driving English politics to the hard right are also present in Scotland; it is wise to assume, for example, that the relatively low salience of immigration in Scottish politics – and the consequent smaller surge of of support towards Reform – owes more to the relative absence of mass migration here, than to any huge difference in social attitudes. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Yet still, Swinney's staunchly centre-left and liberal SNP remains Scotland's most popular party, and provides the kind of bulwark against hard rightward drift that is now also provided – on a much larger scale – by leaders like Canada's Mark Carney, and Australia's Anthony Albanese. That Swinney could still squander that lead by is obvious. From some opponents, and even from some in his own party, he will face pressure to ape Starmer's rightward shift – a false move that would devastate his electoral support among loyal centre-left voters, for little if any gain. Independence diehards From some noisier voices in the independence movement, meanwhile, he will face pressure to put independence front and centre in his election campaign; 'first paragraph, first sentence' is the current cry. Swinney, though, is a veteran in dealing with independence diehards who simply cannot grasp that the vast majority of voters care far less about independence as a principle, than they do about its possible practical consequences in terms of economy, society, and a viable future for their children and grandchildren; and my guess is that he will strive to keep those positive, practical ends in view, and aim to present independence simply as an increasingly attractive way of achieving them. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A year is a very long time in politics, of course; and as this week's renewed row over the Glen Rosa ferry shows, the SNP's 18 years in government inevitably offer a litany of failures, broken promises, and examples of incompetence that may make the idea of 'change' attractive to voters. Politics of decency and common sense Yet after last year's heavy use of the word 'change' in Labour's election campaign – followed by a year in government that has looked like far too much of the same again – voters will have reason to be much more sceptical about the idea that 'change' is a good thing in itself. Labour, after all, now seems rudderless in a sea of abandoned values and policy U-turns, the Conservatives are still profoundly discredited by the nonsense of the Johnson and Truss years, and Reform are a bunch of billionaire-backed opportunists who care about the wellbeing of the British working class the way Donald Trump cares about the fate of the workers who keep his golf courses lush and green come drought or high water.
The Herald Scotland
17-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Yousaf: PM's ‘fearful undertones' on immigration voter ‘dog whistle'
Number 10 has already rejected claims that the remarks echoed those in Enoch Powell's infamous 1968 'rivers of blood' speech. But Mr Yousaf insisted it had 'the same fearful undertones', as he argued that migrants are the people who 'keep Britain afloat'. In a piece written for LBC, the former SNP leader said: 'Starmer's invocation of 'strangers' is a modern echo – a dog whistle to voters who blame migrants for every social ill, from stretched public services to the cost-of-living crisis. 'It betrays a failure to understand, or deliberately mask, the fact that Britain's prosperity depends on migration, on openness – not building walls.' Mr Yousaf, who described himself as being the 'proud grandson of immigrants', launched the attack days after the UK Government unveiled plans that will mean those coming to Britain will have to wait 10 years to apply for settled status, instead of five. Other changes will mean a higher standard of English will be required for those seeking to come to the UK, while ministers will also end overseas recruitment for care home workers. Under the Tories, nearly one million people came to the UK from overseas between 2019 and 2023. My Labour government is taking back control of our borders. — Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 12, 2025 Mr Yousaf said that the Prime Minister's speech had 'underlined a lamentable truth', that 'the Labour Party has become so desperate to stem the decline in their polling, they haven't just lurched to the right, but are comfortable embracing rhetoric once confined to the hardest edges of the Conservative Party and now central to Nigel Farage's Reform Party'. Stressing the importance of immigrants to the UK, the former SNP leader that in England 'roughly 35% of doctors are non-British', adding that these people 'save lives on a daily basis'. He also noted more than 10,000 social care staff in Scotland have come from overseas, adding that 'every major sector' in the economy 'relies on migrants to plug chronic skills gaps'. As such, Mr Yousaf told the Prime Minister: 'Denigrate immigrants as 'strangers' and you undermine and repel the very people who keep Britain afloat.' With Anas Sarwar having agreed that migration must come down 'across the board', Mr Yousaf hit out at the Scottish Labour leader for having 'slavishly' fallen into line behind the Prime Minister. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was accused of 'slavishly' supporting the PM (Image: Jane Barlow/PA) Mr Yousaf said: 'Under current rules, neither Sarwar's father nor my own would have been allowed into the UK to build prosperous lives, not only for their own families but for the hundreds, if not thousands, of people they have employed over the years.' The former SNP leader added: 'Sarwar's promise of standing up to Starmer and up for Scotland is rightly ridiculed, and as I suspect Anas will find out, the people of Scotland see right through it. 'He has sat silent as Starmer betrayed Waspi women, cut the Winter Fuel Allowance, slashed disability support, and now threatens our country's prosperity – all to try and pander to Reform voters.' READ MORE: Sarwar backs immigration reforms but avoids Starmer's rhetoric Nicola Sturgeon: Prime Minister's immigration comments 'dumb politics' Recalling that he had been first minister of Scotland at a time when Rishi Sunak was prime minister and Sadiq Khan was London Mayor, Mr Yousaf insisted: 'We should feel a sense of pride that in Britain at one time we had a Muslim Mayor of London, Hindu PM, and Scottish-Pakistani first minister. 'That is a blueprint for other nations on how multiculturalism has been a success, not a failure.' He praised his successor John Swinney, for his 'leadership' on such issues and for 'condemning Reform's vile rhetoric and standing firmly for inclusive values'. Mr Yousaf added: 'If only more politicians had such conviction, we would not be on the brink of possibly handing the keys of No 10 to Nigel Farage.' However a spokesperson for the Scottish Labour leader told LBC that the 'desperate attack' from Mr Yousaf 'deliberately misunderstands and misrepresents Anas Sarwar's position on a number of issues'. The spokesperson said: 'It is possible to celebrate the positive impact of immigration and diaspora communities in our society, while believing we need a managed and controlled immigration system. To pretend otherwise only helps right-wing politicians to use the issue to divide our communities. 'It is worth remembering that Humza Yousaf is a former health secretary and former first minister who helped create a social care crisis in Scotland by breaking the system, cutting budgets for councils, failing to workforce plan, and delivering chronically low pay and conditions for care workers.'
