Labour – on your side in Scotland

By John Park

The mood among delegates at this year’s Scottish Labour Party Conference was upbeat, positive and acutely aware of the concerns we all have about the current economic climate. The party in Scotland is realistic about our overall position but the political space that opposition provides the Labour group of MSPs is being put to good use by the wider party in Scotland. The joint work being taken forward by MSPs and trade unions on skills, bus re-regulation and violence in the workplace is helping the party to re-connect both internally and externally.

Iain Gray’s very well received first speech as Scottish leader wasn’t just for the party delegates – it was pitched outside the conference hall too. The contrast between Alex Salmond and Iain Gray will dominate the next Scottish Parliament elections. The wider public are now starting appreciate – something which became apparent to Labour Party members in Scotland during the recent leadership campaign – that Iain Gray is a politician of substance whereas Alex Salmond is a typical career politician devoid of any meaningful experience out with political circles.

In 2007 the people of Scotland thought they could vote SNP without consequence because they would be able to vote against independence in a referendum. Ordinary Scots are now finding that is not the case and the consequence of voting SNP has meant no new hospitals or schools being built and almost every major manifesto commitment ditched or scaled back. Their manifesto was clearly a programme for getting elected not a programme for government. The fight back in Scotland will help the party more widely. It will invigorate activists in the European elections this year and in the general election.

What struck me about the conference was the genuine belief by members at all levels that we are the only party who can make a difference in these difficult times. The Tories are happy to let the market forces take their course, the SNP complain about the powers they don’t have instead of using the leavers they do have more effectively and the Lib Dems – well what can you say about the Lib Dems? As Nick Clegg was telling his party faithful in Harrogate that they were the party the public could turn to – their Scottish leadership were thinking about their own political futures as opposed to the future of the Scotland by hinting at a coalition with the SNP to “keep Labour out”. The fact they are even beginning to suggest such a move – over two years before the next Scottish Parliament elections – indicates they clearly think Labour is on the right track.

The Scottish Liberals are a peculiar bunch. In the recent budget negotiations they moved from demanding a 2p tax cut from the SNP – forced on them by Nick Clegg – to within 24 hours agreeing to support the budget if the SNP engaged in the Calman Commission on the issue of borrowing powers and some other marginal stuff which myself and the wider Scottish public have already forgotten.

That recent Scottish budget set the tone for Labour ahead of our conference. We are rightly focussed on making a difference beyond parliament and beyond politics. That’s why during those budget negotiations with the SNP we pushed in particular for extra apprenticeship places and more effective support for those facing redundancy – because we know employment is the key concern for Scots right now.

Politically the SNP have always been uncomfortable with our aim to expand apprenticeships because they recognise apprenticeships have always been at the core of the labour and trade union movement’s industrial policy. While the UK is gearing up to offer 250,000 new apprenticeship places this year the SNP were planning only 10,700 – following the budget that figure is now 18,500 new starts – a huge jump.

As well as the ideological opposition to apprenticeships, the SNP don’t believe in government intervention when it comes to skills development. They think it should be left to the markets and predominately funded by employers -we know that was the policy of the Tories in the 80’s and 90’s – and that’s why we are still suffering from skills shortages today.

That’s just a flavour of why Scotland needs a strong Labour Party. I think Iain Gray summed it up perfectly on Saturday when he reminded delegates that not only does Labour need to be on the side of ordinary Scots we need to be by the side of ordinary Scots in these testing times – anything else just isn’t good enough.