Forgetful Politicians
Scottish local politics has descended into farce with the recent Colinton/Fairmilehead by-election being won by Liberal Democrat candidate Louise Spence, only for her to resign within a few days announcing she was selling her house and moving to Dubai. This, despite her running on a ticket as a local candidate: “Louise Spence – for a new LOCAL councillor who lives here”.
I mean, who doesn’t have the odd diary slip-up, forget the odd dentist appointment, or that Zoom call, but to forget “I’m moving to Dubai” seems a little odd. Maybe she just didn’t expect to win the election at all?
Meanwhile Scottish Labour seem to have been suffering from a similar amnesia. Mhairi Hunter lays out the facts of the case for the forgetful about the Winter Fuel Allowance debacle…
“The Winter Fuel Allowance was due to be devolved in September of this year and replaced with a Scotgov equivalent. But in July of this year the UK Labour government announced that the WFA would be abolished for all but those on pension credit or other means tested benefits.
UK gov did not consult Scotgov about this. Rather, it notified them very shortly before making the public announcement. There is no conceivable way, therefore, to argue that Scotgov chose to cut the WFA. It had no involvement in that decision.
As a consequence of UK gov’s unilateral decision to cut the WFA, the budget which was devolved to Scotgov was reduced by 90%. This made it impossible for Scotgov to unilaterally reinstate it. They don’t have the money & don’t have the financial flexibility the UK gov has.
Instead, a fully devolved scheme has been pushed back to next year. There was no practical possibility of doing anything else. Clearly Lab miscalculated in terms of how unpopular this cut would be. To distract from that ScotLab have adopted a course of wild confusion.
The current argument being made by Scottish Labour MPs is that the Scotgov needs to fix their government’s WFA mess. The current argument being made by Scottish Labour MSPs is that Scots must vote Labour to stop Labour’s WFA cut. Both these arguments are objectively bonkers.”
Anas Sarwar is essentially following the Ruth Davidson playbook of posturing as ‘standing up’ to her own party in government – when, in fact – he has neither the capacity or standing to do so, as is clear for anyone to see.
More embarrassing for Sarwar, having run on a strange ticket of ‘standing up to Starmer’, he has now had to do a 360 announcing that they Scottish Labour are “forcing a vote to get the Scottish Government to reinstate the Winter Fuel Payment” … that they voted to cut …
You really couldn’t make this stuff up.
This goes beyond amnesia and into some new form of hypnosis. As Dougie McCann notes:
“Vote Labour to mitigate Labour policies” is quite the slogan for forthcoming Scottish Elections.
Just to avoid the facts slipping down into the Memory Hole, here’s a wee reminder of the vote that took place *checks notes* only a month ago:
Nor is any of this just an inconsequential party-political spat, as those suffering from fuel poverty this winter will attest. Labour’s 360 u-turn can also be seen in the context of their wider work to completely undermine the devolution they themselves established, which they also seem to have forgotten.
This bizarre situation has moved even the most loyal band of lobbyists to remark on the situation:
“Vote Labour to stop Labour.”@geoffaberdein on the “totemic” issue of the Winter Fuel Allowance cut – and @AnasSarwar‘s commitment to reverse it at Holyrood.
“You voted for this cut and you’re asking me to vote for Labour for the next Scottish Government to absolve it!” pic.twitter.com/Tb1JT5CB9o
— Holyrood Sources (@HolyroodSources) November 22, 2024
Where does this leave Scottish Labour? It’s been exposed as not just without principle but also without strategy as it desperately spins out of control trying to reconcile its own position (such as it is) with UK Labour’s and pretend desperately that it has autonomy and agency when it clearly has neither.
10 days till the nxt white oot apparently, gitn fed up ae fowk, a return ae the dinosaurs wid be gude
the woolly mammoths etcetera that wid teach them
Consultation – this is something we are used to in Scotland prior to the government taking decisions. I’m not aware of any evidence that Westminster has consulted on any of their decisions. There has been support for abandoning universalism (I want it to continue incidentally) but Reeves does not seem to have reached out to that before her disastrous decision which has set the mark on the new government like nothing else. Genuine consultation (and not the focus group type advisories I associate with Blair-Brown) is a useful tool and could help them to avoid some of the grievous missteps they’ve made in Westminster. Their failures help the cause of Scottish self determination, of course, but that is not a good reason to support them. The question is can we (the independence movement) turn their clumsy lack of political understanding to our advantage?
Labour could have avoided a lot of current criticism if they had:
flagged up additional tax rises/cuts in manifesto (didn’t purely to win more votes)
talked to all relevant stakeholders before implementing (didn’t because they are arrogant/ naive)
They are reaping what they have sewed.
Wrt to Anas Sarwar and WFA it is more a case of ‘oh what a tangled web we weave etc’
I think it’s worse than that, John. Over the WFA, Scottish Labour strike me as deeply dishonest. As do the Edinburgh LibDems over their ‘local’ candidate who must have known before the election that she was off to Dubai. Do they really take the electorate for fools? The danger is that this kind of cynical behaviour will just benefit Reform.
Paddy – unfortunately I think you are correct. The public are pretty scunnered with politicians playing political games and taking them for fools. With SNP suffering with the legacy of incumbency, some foolish behaviour by ministers, policy setbacks all seized on by a hostile Westminster and media and no feasible route to independence I fear some of the electorate are in the mood to stick 2 fingers up to the politicians in Scotland. This background, failing public services and a poor economic outlook creates the environment in which the Reform Party flourishes. I still think their main appeal will be to Brexit supporters, disillusioned Tories and anti independence Labour voters.I worry more about independence supporters just not voting as we witnessed at recent General Election.
We might see it for the comedy gold it is but the unionist press will spin it in exactly the way Sarwar’s hoping it will be taken by the electorate.
Unless the point is to discredit elected parliaments (see Naomi Klein on stupid-smart appointments and wholesale corporate capture of states). Maybe Capita is waiting in the wings to take over all policy-writing here too. The stupider our politicians, the closer we get.
I note that Holyrood government are going to continue with WFA albeit at a lower rate for many pensioners.
No doubt Labour in Scotland will try to claim credit and complain about decreas in payment while complaining about lack of funding in Healthcare and education. (Labour MP’s from Scotland voted in favour of removing WFA ie voted to cut payment to Holyrood for WFA).
It will be interesting to see how electorate in England & Wales react and whether this might pressure Labour at Westminster into a partial climb down.
struggling to understand the uk &/or scottish government’s rationale here which seems intent on means testing old timers many of whom are not au fait with tinternet technological scammery & are therefore at a severe disadvantage, also if the suits i.e., overgrown skool prefects that pass o’er legislation efter violating past laws pit thru by their pals in previous administrations then why should ombdy be surprised at thir ruthlessness fin it appears that ol those that have paid thir stamp for the required number ae years i.e., 30 tae in some cases nearer 50 years ae labour (in this case, a truer definition ov that wurd) are being telt nah yer 200 notes a week are mair than inuff so fk yis, does not bode well does it for ony faith in either suits, law or legislation breakers & makers amongst ony younger punters watching & thinking tae thimsels: Ah, so they wint us a’ deid tae mak thir ain lives that wee bit cosier du they