How To Beat The SNP; Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser resurrects his plan to split from UK party, how does that benefit Scots, changing signage doesn’t do it, what is needed is to reduce poverty, increase social mobility , job and educational opportunities, hope is out the window, the new game in town is delivery, what can be delivered by unionist parties that the SNP can’t deliver?

Dear All

The Silver bullet to kill off the SNP is to reduce poverty in Scotland, increase social mobility and opportunities for people right across the job and educational spectrums.  The SNP used grievance to tap into the working class vote traditional held by the Scottish Labour Party. Scotland for decades voted Labour while at the same time being socially conservative. Yesterday saw the publication of a yougov poll for voter intentions for Westminster.

The news wasn’t good for the Labour Party; they polled fourth on 11%. The Brexit Party polled 12% and this is a party in Scotland effectively doing nothing with no support network in place. Despite a new leader in Richard Leonard from the ‘left’, Scottish Labour is in a slump, what are they doing about it? Pretty much nothing because no one knows where to start who runs the party and how to start real reforms!

Politics is like football; when the team is failing you bring in new players, new team management and new direction. Do you get a sense that is happening with the Scottish operation? If you can’t run a party, what chance do you have to run a government or country?

Take away poverty and the SNP loses a huge number of voters.

In politics, some people wrong think both in Labour and Conservatives that if they were separate from their main UK operation, everything would be rosy in the garden. People, in their opinion would vote for them because decisions would be made in Scotland. People don’t vote on that basis, they don’t care where decisions are made but they do care that the decisions benefit them.

Would decisions made in Scotland by the Holyrood political class be better?

No!

Holyrood is a second rate parliament jam packed with third rate politicians despite 20 years in operation, wisdom hasn’t arrived at that location.  Can you remember the big changes that benefited Scotland in those 20 years, mostly no, and mostly everything which was passed by Holyrood, you can’t remember.

Back in the day, Murdo Fraser, pre Davidson leadership and mini revival thought the way to get back on a sound footing was to split from the UK party. The Conservatives  slump in Scotland ended because of independence, but more specifically the disastrous leadership of Kezia Dugdale as Scottish Labour Leader. She said she could in certain circumstances vote for independence. This led Scottish Labour unionist voters to switch and vote Conservative. It was a lucky break for the Scottish Conservatives and another bad break for Scottish Labour.

Now, Murdo Fraser is back with his idea to split from the main party, he favours a Canadian model”, the formation of a separate centre-right party to contest Holyrood elections which he thinks could boost Unionist votes at the next poll. He previously suggested setting up a new centre-right force when he ran for the Scottish Tory leadership in 2011, some of his ideas where take up by Ruth Davidson. The election of Boris Johnson has made an impression in Scotland, of course the SNP hate him as displayed by the overtly un-gracious act by Nicola Sturgeon on the steps of Bute House. But despite Murdo’s idea gaining fresh impetus, this idea doesn’t appear to be a flyer for Ruth Davidson. To say she is lukewarm is an understatement.

So, how does the Canadian model work?

Murdo said:

“The Conservative Party of Canada, despite its electoral successes at a federal level, does not contest elections to the Quebec National Assembly. Instead, Quebec Conservatives vote for the Quebec Liberal Party, which despite its name has been independent of the Canadian Liberals – the party of Justin Trudeau – since 1955, and sits somewhat to their right on economic issues.”

Murdo added the notion of different political parties at different levels “is the norm across Canada” but to transplant a new system into Scotland may have start up problems. One thing the Scottish Conservatives need to be is in sole charge of Scottish policy even it if differs hugely from the UK Party. Instead of Liberal Conservatism, the Scottish Conservatives need more social Conservatism.

Scotland is at its heart traditionally a socially conservative country in nature, always has been always will be for the majority.

Murdo Fraser also touched on the upcoming Holyrood election of 2021, to win it, parties will need to have policies, plans and new politicians which the SNP cannot deliver. Ruth Davidson needs to be able to deliver what Nicola Sturgeon cannot in terms of devolution.

A better Scotland, not just saying she will deliver a better Scotland, actually delivering it.

If there was a Labour Government in Westminster, Richard Leonard would have the same opportunity that Ruth Davidson has, but unless there is an early general election, his chances are less favourable.

 “The key battleground ahead for us is 2021 – the Scottish Parliament elections  where a victory for the SNP with a majority of seats at Holyrood for pro-independence parties will lead to them claiming a mandate for a second referendum”.

Something I have previously blogged on.

Murdo added:

“The priority for unionists, of all parties, must be to defeat them in that objective”.

Well to defeat them, the idea of waving a flag won’t be enough, someone has to cut into their voter based hard.

Murdo continued:

“The lesson of politics in Quebec is that when the forces of federalism come together they can see off the threat of separation. If it worked there, it could work here.”

Finally, there is no chance of Murdo’s ideas getting a hearing in this current part of the electoral cycle, there isn’t the time. Whether his ideas get taken up post 2021 depends on whether he can canvass enough support, but there is another event which could change the political landscape in the UK, the Brexit question. Fundamentally, the SNP are beatable because they aren’t a party of government as their record shows, but to oust them will take more than flag waving and rhetoric, those days are long gone.

We live in an age where parties must deliver, and if they don’t, they won’t be going anywhere except backwards.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University