Monday, February 27, 2017

Not a snowball’s chance in hell, Kezia Dugdale's flagship federal plan has no support whatsoever from Scots, no support from England and no support from the UK Labour Party, add to her woes, huge curtains were used to hide hundreds of empty seats from view at her Scottish Conference, Kezia need to pledge something that makes sense to get back voters, campaign to devolve DWP to Holyrood
















Dear All

Kezia Dugdale is pinning her hopes for Scottish Labour's survival on a plan to introduce federalism to Scotland. Apparently this new idea is supposed to be her flagship plan. The Scottish Labour Party has according to their members lost their core vote in Scotland; there are no more Labour heartlands as Scotland remains in political flux.

So, the obvious question is this, does making a federal Scotland solve Kezia Dugdale’s leadership problems?

I will be blunt no!

The reason the answer is no, is that the working class people who left Labour for the SNP are gone, and they don’t seem to be wanting to come back and also those who are Unionist voters who vote Labour will not impressed by this move. If you remember the reason that Scottish Labour is the third party of Holyrood was a failure to defend the Union.

If I was to sum up what Scottish Labour’s problem was, it would be this, Scottish Labour tried to be all things to all people and ended up being nothing to just about everyone. You can add to it, the arrogance of some people who were elected who produced such a poor service dealing with complaints, people asked why should we vote for someone who isn’t going to help you. Scottish Labour traded off the legacy of political giants like Nye Bevan, they used up the goodwill of the working class who reached a tipping point in 2014.

Since 2014, the public have fled from Scottish Labour, the polling is at 14% for them, they have made themselves meaningful to no one, they haven’t learned from past mistakes, they haven’t evolved; they are still treating the public with contempt. The entire 2017 Scottish Labour Conference can be summed up as £240 bribe on Child benefit.

According to Professor John Curtice, poll after poll, shows Labour losing support right across the board.

Did you vote for federalism?

Are people in Scotland talking about federalism?

Is there a desire for federalism?

Kezia Dugdale’s flagship is another top down plan which has no real support from anyone, and has the potential to lose her further support. If you are really interested in federalism in the UK, then you go read about it at the Constitutional Reform Group.


What does Kezia Dugdale use as a slogan, to save time, she talks about a ‘new Act of Union’, leaving aside the legality of that isn’t going to happen, it shows that Scottish Labour isn’t just bereft of ideas, it also has to pinch other people’s slogans.

Brian Wilson, the former Labour minister isn’t impressed by the new Flagship policy; he remarks that he shared people’s “confusion” about what a new People’s Constitutional Convention looking at federalism would achieve in practice. I suspect his confusion centres on that Kezia Dugdale wants a People’s Constitutional Convention so people agree with her policy.

Kezia Dugdale makes the fundamental mistake of thinking she is there to decide want people want, she isn’t, she is supposed to be there to respond and act on the wishes of the people. Wilson right makes the point which I have previously blogged on regarding this issue, there is no appetite for federalism in Scotland.

Could you imagine Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP signing up to federalism, I can’t, federalism means living within your means, in Scotland that means the end of the Barnett Formula and no safety net, when that goes the cuts come in. Scotland would be devastated and whoever is in charge would get the blame. The SNP aren’t going to sign up and see their control of power slide away.

The biggest obstacle in the path of Kezia Dugdale’s plan is that England doesn’t want federalism. When John Prescott tried to push through Labour’s plan for regional devolution in 2004 voters rejected a north east regional assembly four-to-one.

Kezia Dugdale has painted herself in a corner trying to promise something which no one wants either side of the border, that she can’t deliver at all and to top it all what chance has she in convincing Jeremy Corbyn who she failed to back as leader.

To show how unprepared she is to explain her flagship policy, on BBC Sunday Politics, she struggled to explain how the convention would deliver UK-wide federalism. She was also forced to concede it was not UK Labour party policy to carve England into devolved regions in order to arrive at a federal UK.

Kezia Dugdale has no mandate from the people of Scotland, she has no mandate from the people of England and she has no mandate from the UK Labour Party, her flagship policy is going down in flames because she isn’t listening to the people.

And the people have decided that their future isn’t served by a Scottish Labour Party that isn’t listening.

Kezia Dugdale wrongly thought that £240 bribe on Child benefit and a policy doomed to failure would revive her and her party’s fortunes, she really does need to ‘up the ante’ or as it was recently said by someone, the catastrophic failure to understand the changed nature of UK politics has sealed Labour’s fate.

When you keep doing the same thing which ends in disaster, a new course of action is required; Kezia Dugdale cannot keep losing and expect to remain Scottish Labour leader. When her deputy Alex Rowley gave his closing speech he failed to mention federalism or the convention, but the point I would like you to focus in on is huge curtains were used to hide hundreds of empty seats from view. Not only is Scottish Labour losing the voters, those who currently run Scottish Labour don’t chime with their own membership.

Kezia Dugdale needs to step back from federalism and think again with policies that would matter to people, one such policy; pledge to campaign for total devolvement of the DWP to the Scottish Parliament.

Pledge to something which makes sense!

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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