Pragmatic re-set can change SNP fortunes
AS we claw our way out of post-election analysis and, in the case of the SNP, post-election shock, there is one thing we can all agree on – we are in a new era of politics.
Journalists at certain more leftof-centre news outlets have been waxing lyrical about this new dawn where the focus is more on policy than personalities. It’s early days of course, so it seems premature to get too excited, and “personalities” such as Nigel Farage as a new MP may well eat up a lot of airtime in this Labour-led parliament I fear.
But it certainly seems as if the majority of voters have turned their backs on personality-led politics and the cult of the leader, in Scotland as well as the rest of the UK, in exchange for the hope of some serious governmental stability.
For the many Scots who switched to Labour to vote the Tories out at this election, there will be relief, for others this relief will be tempered with trepidation about Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s big declarations on delivering for Scotland. Sarwar needs to remember that Scottish voters will be the judge of that. What comes next depends on how Labour at Westminster works with the SNP at Holyrood and vice versa.
Delivery is the key message here. Some of the post-election analysis – where Scottish political leaders have focused on their electionwinning prowess in the last 10 years since the independence referendum – has utterly missed the point. You can win as many elections as you want, but if you don’t deliver on these mandates from the people, then the people will choose someone else.
This is what has happened at this election in Scotland and if the SNP is to make any progress on rebuilding support, some hard truths on how style over substance and the lack of delivery behind big personality-driven public relations politics has made the electorate turn their backs on the SNP.
Tony Blair had some words of warning in The Times for new Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the differences between campaigning to win power and then exercising this power in government, two very different roles where the latter requires a completely different skillset in terms of “intellectual and practical graft of policy and delivery”.
Over and over again, the subjects coming up on the doorsteps during the SNP’s election campaign were the cost of living crisis, the NHS, education, trust and competence.
The SNP need to rediscover this skillset that Blair describes, and this is going to require some hard-nosed decisions when it comes to who is best to lead the party out of this electoral black hole and into a completely new style of politics based on vision, expertise and measurable success.
In the past few weeks former MSP, Alex Neil and former MP, Douglas Chapman, have called on the SNP to “think big” in terms of long-term, ambitious and system-wide transformation in areas such as the enormous housing crisis we face, the decarbonisation of our built environment and ensuring that Scots benefit from our own natural energy resources.
Labour are focused on mission-led government from Westminster; we need to be focused on mission-led delivery in Scotland based on our own, bespoke needs.
There may be a very different man in the hot seat at Number 10 but at Holyrood, the SNP are still in government and as Professor James Mitchell pointed out in a recent article in Holyrood Magazine on what’s next for devolution, “there needs to be evidence of mutual trust and parity of esteem based on the understanding that each government has a legitimate mandate from the same electorate”.
Immigration is an area of policy change where this “mutual trust” and “parity of esteem” needs to be recognised in terms of Scotland’s very individual needs and demographic challenges.
Reversing the inhumane Rwanda policy is a welcome signal of change by Labour but some of their rhetoric on immigration does not match Scotland’s more “positive” approach to quote Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes.
Forbes has been keen to follow up on Labour’s “partnership” pledges on working between London and Edinburgh in this area of immigration in terms of “mutual respect”. The Deputy FM has publicly acknowledged that this has been “a change election”, and that “competence and integrity” must be the hallmark of government in Scotland going forward.
Amen to that.
Finally, an area where the real test of how deep any of Labour’s “partnership” commitments to Scotland runs will be energy.
So far, information on their GB Energy plans is neither inspiring nor reassuring (watch this space on Grangemouth) and promises of a shiny Scottish office won’t really cut it when the issue of higher standing charges for many customers in Scotland coupled with profits from our energy resources disappearing into private pockets with little regard for local communities remains a huge concern.
The failure to deliver a Scottish National Energy Company has been a casualty of the style over substance years at Holyrood; it hurts, but this is why change is necessary, and why this “competence and integrity” pledge from Forbes is so important in order to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
And planning for this future means looking back to what did and didn’t work well in terms of devolution.
One of the SNP’s most successful eras was the minority government at Holyrood when competence and good cross-party relations got results and set the tone for future successes. 2024 is a very different time with unique challenges and pressing concerns. But transparency and open debate never grow old, neither does respect or collaboration. Couple this with “thinking big” and bringing in our best thinkers and doers, many of whom have been unfairly excluded for years, to deliver change tailored to our bespoke needs can usher in a new era of politics in Scotland too.
Led by Holyrood, made in Scotland and in partnership with our neighbours – a pragmatic reset for devolution on the road to independence. That’s the kind of “change election” I can live with.