Dear All
One of the things which I have said for years is that the Scottish Labour Party isn't in a fit state to go campaigning, never mind fight elections. Even before the tenure of Richard Leonard as leader, this has been case, but despite losing repeatedly, the party makes no effort to reform. Of course, people like me who recognise the problem are ignored, the Scottish Labour Party don't care for my opinion nor do they value me as an experienced political campaigner. Those who run the party are quite willing to sit there while the party festers, they also don't recognise that they need to change the campaigning model, but that isn't going to be enough.
Better leadership decisions are needed, and also a change to educational development in the party at the grassroots. Anyone can 'follow the leader' on a campaign night, and anyone for the most part can put a leaflet through a door. Having poorly trained activists doesn't raise the party in the eyes of the public, or help propel the party forward. At present, activism for the most part is limited to telephone canvass so the party can get data, to do this activity, you need a computer and a telephone. For those on limited budgets, this activity is not possible due to cost. So people who could work for the party can't work for the party. The party doesn't recognise this situation, in the minds of the paid Scottish Labour staff and organisers, everyone has a pc and everyone has phone which does free phone calls. Surprisingly no one is asking if people can afford to run up huge phone bills. This is an activity that Scottish Labour should be providing the resources so that people can take part in. There hasn't been one email by any Scottish Labour staffer and organiser during lockdown that I have read that takes notice of this issue.
On this one example of why change is needed, do you see what I mean that the party needs to act, there are three things I have outlined previously, better leadership, revamped education and a new campaigning model. Recently in a panel discussion former Labour MP Tom Harris said that Scottish Labour must “write off” the Holyrood elections. Under the current Labour Party set up and the current covid situation, Harris certainly has a talking point, but let's say the party did 'write off' the election. What would they do in the next six months up till election day? Scottish Labour will contest the 2021 election and I would assume that they would fight every seat, and basically run the same failed model which has resulted in election loss after election loss. It seems clear that rather than fight 2021 election on a broad front, the Scottish Labour Party need to concentrate people, time and resources into key viable areas. Some people don't however understand what a key viable area is, but it isn't just based on previous voting figures, other factors have a role to that assessment.
I have talked about all this before, it is part of what I call 'the political economy', of course, the party has in the past given certain seats extra help, for example in East Renfrewshire. The party poured money into a losing campaign under right wing leader Kezia Dugdale to support right wing candidate Blair McDougall. It seems the people weren't willing to support someone who just 'turned up' to be the candidate, then just like before, then disappeared. I tried to explain to Labour candidate Kate Watson that someone who runs campaigns doesn't necessarily make them a political campaigner. Blair McDougall came third in the election, his placing was made worse by the fact that under Jim Murphy, a potential 25,987 votes from 2010 election, were reduced to 14,346 under Blair McDougall, in 2017, but you must include the 2015 election result in which Jim Murphy lost the seat, and his votes ran back to 19,295. Here is the analogy I used to Kate Watson, Lord King ran British Airways but he wasn't allowed to fly the planes. I could have used the guys who designed Ferraris weren't allowed to race them because there is a recognition that in certain cases in an organsation, that professionals are needed. By professional, I don't mean they are paid, I mean they are best at what they do, that is why I do lots of different types of campaigns. In politics, some 'known' faces turn up when by-elections for Holyrood or Westminster are on the go, but when little ones happened like Bishopbriggs South in June 2009, you never see them. By-elections are a great learning tool for people who want to understand how campaigning works.
Blair McDougall ran Better Together, it was criticised by some people for the way they operated, myself, I didn't experience any real problems, with the one exception of them wanting data from my group in Pollok. The group I operated in had few people, a core group of 3, and additional people who rotated in and out, canvassing for us wasn't viable. I was asked by the person running it for my opinion, I said given the area we had to cover, getting material to the majority of people who lived there was more important, than canvassing. The data couldn't be turned around fast enough to give us any benefit of where to target campaign resources. In order for canvassing to work, you need to canvass the entire area, and that is an activity which is only viable in what is termed a long campaign. Given our time, people and resources, and that we were fighting for every vote during the indyref, we did exceptional well under difficult circumstances which mostly related to us being under time pressure. Our campaigning plan couldn't be based on canvassing because this information would have to have been available as we started the short campaign.
Tom Harris says that party members should accept that Richard Leonard is a “busted flush” in the eyes of the public. In the case of Leonard, he lacks presentational skills that work well for him, and he lacks understanding that the party is broken. If you want to wage 'political warfare', then the unit you lead must be trained, he doesn't seem to recognise that. He doesn't recognise the need for a new campaigning model, and he probably hasn't brought in an external body to do a staff review of their output, and them. I agree with former Labour MP Tom Harris that a change in leadership of the party would not make a difference to its chances in May 2021. I would go further because it's time that the leadership accepted the party is broken and has been for some time.
There have been leaders of the right and the left who have ran the party since the SNP won in 2007, (but mostly from the right) and they have made no difference whatsoever in reconnecting with voters. The issue of the party's decline is complex because it is made up of many little micro actions of bad decisions ranging over decades. You could parcel this up as supporting bad policies, electing people as MPs and MSPs who failed to serve their constituents, and bad leaders who didn't know how to lead. The bad leaders didn't fight against the bad policies such as the bedroom tax, they didn't get rid of MPs and MSPs who failed to serve their constituents, and they didn't value education of the grassroots. Scottish Labour leaders left their responsibilities in part with the voters, and the voters kicked the party out of office, and then kicked them out of constituencies, they, the voters did the job the leadership should have done. If they had done that job, they could have saved many seats that they lost in my opinion.
Recently people formerly connected to the Labour Party in senior positions have come out with the view that a change is happening regardless indyref 2. Tom Harris has said it would be “absurd to claim that independence is definitely not going to happen”. Given his employment as a consultant, you can see how he thinks, but he is wrong. Indyref 2 isn't going to happen under Boris Johnson, nor any Conservative Government, it isn't going to happen in 2021 either as Sturgeon wishes. People who voted 'remain' are upset with the decision to leave the EU in Scotland, but this is their anger getting voiced, but does cutting off your nose to spite your face seem viable? What are we losing by leaving the EU? The simple answer is not being used as a cash cow for £20 billion a year for starters, no one will notice any difference travelling to the EU other than standing in a different queue. And yes, they wouldn't still need a visa to enter any European country. The UK has no visa entry in many countries outside the European Union. Disgruntled Remainers want to punish the Conservatives over a decision made by the majority of the British people in a free and fair vote, but how can that be right?
Harris said:
“I can accept there has been an undeniable increase in support for independence since June 2016, maybe by five or six points… Devolution itself has been a far greater boost for the nationalists. It would be absurd, blinkered, to claim independence is definitely not going to happen. Political facts of life force us at least to consider the possibility.But if independence is to be achieved. It's not going to happen because of the efforts of the nationalists, it will happen because of the misjudgements of unionists.”
He added:
“We have to be clear about this; there is no alternative reality in which the SNP placidly accepted the result of the 2014 referendum. An SNP that doesn't demand that (independence) every day of every year is an SNP without any purpose.An SNP leader who doesn't prioritise a referendum will very soon be an ex-leader. “And if another referendum was ever held and there was another No vote there is not the slightest prospect of the SNP accepting that result either, or not campaigning for a third one.”
One thing which is needed to stop the nonsense of the SNP is a Clarity Act, or a change to the Scotland Act. For far too long has Westminster been content to allow the SNP to abuse the system in Scotland. It is time that the SNP Government were subject to a financial audit of money from Westminster, and where it has gone. If the SNP has taken Westminster money allocated for certain groups of people and withheld it or spent it on other things then this should be dealt with. Westminster clearly recognises that they have been absentee political landlords, and they need to be pro-active, the way to do so is ensuring money allocated to certain groups by UK Government isn't syphoned off by the SNP elsewhere.
Finally, 2021 represents an ideal opportunity for the Scottish Labour Party to conduct an external review of all CLPs and Scottish HQ to see how they are functioning as campaigning units. There is a pressing need of reform, and Richard Leonard should ask for additional money and people from the party in London to monitor this election. He needs to do so, in order to draw a plan for moving forward. The Labour Party cannot win Westminster, if it doesn't win back Scotland, to do so requires change, and that change is long overdue and urgent. If there is a positive of the 2021 Holyrood election, it should be the data collected of what has gone wrong, right across the board, and what is needed to be changed to reset the party. People don't like the SNP, but Scottish Labour doesn't do anything to make themselves seem as an alternative or as a government in waiting.
Yours sincerely
George Laird The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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