By Frieda Park

The spectacular implosion of the Scottish National Party provides an unparalleled opportunity to challenge the divisive constitutional wrangling which dominates Scottish politics and for the left to place unambiguous working-class demands at the centre of Scottish life.

The SNP’s crisis has meant that its pursuit of another referendum on independence, an issue which has bitterly divided Scottish people and often contributes to an intolerant political culture, has been removed from the immediate agenda. The SNP President, Mike Russell, recently said that he did not think that independence could be achieved “right now”. He also described the current situation as the biggest crisis that the SNP had faced in 50 years.

ORIGINS OF THE CRISIS

It was Nicola Sturgeon’s sudden departure as Party leader and First Minister that precipitated this crisis. The immediate causes of Sturgeon’s resignation appeared to be her miscalculation over the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Recognition Reform legislation which, rather than provide a platform to launch a culture war with the UK government, instead proved massively unpopular with the SNP membership and the public at large. It was losing support for the party and for independence. People were leaving the Party. One of the first signs of the enormity of the crisis was the attempt by the leadership to cover up falling membership numbers. Secondly, her strategy for kicking another independence referendum up the road was running out of steam and she faced defeat at a special conference on the issue by members, many of whom want a more credible and faster route to achieving independence.

However, as the crisis developed it became obvious that there were more deep-seated and serious problems which led to Sturgeon going. The unhealthy situation in which Sturgeon was Party leader and her husband, Peter Murrell, was Chief Executive led to serious problems for the Party where information was not shared even within the leadership and concerns, particularly about finances, were brushed aside. Murrell too was forced to resign. The lid has blown off the SNP pressure cooker, where a highly centralised leadership brooked no dissent, covered up problems and glibly batted away criticism.

The SNP’s woes are far from over, with increasing public divisions in the party, opposition to the new leader, Humza Yousaf, and the continuing police investigation into its finances under the watch of Sturgeon and Murrell. As part of this it has emerged that £110,000 was spent on a motorhome which was parked for two years outside Murrell’s mother’s home. The vehicle has now been seized by the police. The party’s auditors resigned in September last year, although this has only just been made public, and since then it has been unable to find a replacement. Yousaf has said he was unaware of the lack of auditors until after he became leader. The Party has warned the Electoral Commission of the problem as legally it must submit its accounts to it by 7^th July. There will possibly be an early bye-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West where Margaret Ferrier, who was elected as an SNP MP, was suspended from the Commons for breaking the law in relation to Covid regulations. Revelations about the mismanagement of the SNP and of the government of the country are set to continue.

THE RISE OF THE SNP

There can be few, if any, in Scotland and beyond who have not been surprised at the SNP’s sudden fall from grace as events seem to spiral out of control. In recent years it had established a reputation, not necessarily justified, as a competent, left-of-centre operation especially when contrasted with the Tories at Westminster – a pretty low bar. This image was boosted by the two previous First Ministers, Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, who were capable, charismatic and personable.

But the SNP wasn’t always like that. In its earlier years the SNP was right-wing and was commonly known as the “Tartan Tories”. It was only in 1989 that membership of Siol nan Gaidheal (Seed of the Gaels) was proscribed by the SNP. It is variously described as protofascist or ultranationalist. Nazi sympathies were not uncommon in the SNP at the time of the second world war. Arthur Donaldson, who was Party leader from 1961-69, had said that a Nazi occupation would benefit Scotland. Though present, fascist tendencies, however, did not dominate the SNP, which from its early years was more mainstream right-wing.

What changed was some growing electoral success in the 60s and 70s and the emergence of a stronger, more coordinated left within the party. As well as a commitment to progressive policies there were those who realised that the SNP could not advance to power or independence without winning working class votes and replacing Labour as the leading party in Scotland. Shifting the SNP to the left made sound political sense. In this process the emergence of the 79 Group, called after the year of its formation, was an important milestone. Its presence, however, was not welcomed by the right-wing SNP leadership and the group was proscribed in 1982. Some of its leading members, including Alex Salmond, were expelled, though later readmitted to the Party. Once back in the SNP, Salmond was elected to the UK parliament as MP for Banff and Buchan in 1987, then going on to win the leadership contest of 1990 against the establishment candidate Winnie Ewing.

Thereafter under Salmond’s leadership the SNP set out to present itself as a left alternative to Labour, a project which was enabled by the failures of New Labour and in particular the Iraq war. While disillusioned Labour voters in England had nowhere else to go, other than not vote, in Scotland there was the SNP and the prospect that independence could offer a different future. In addition the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 gave the SNP a platform on which they could present themselves as the voice of the nation.

The SNP started out at the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999 with 35 seats to Labour’s 56, but only two elections later, by 2007 the SNP gained one more seat than Labour to become the biggest single party on 47 seats. It made further progress after that, gaining an absolute majority of seats in 2011 – the jumping off point for the independence referendum of 2014. Although the SNP dropped back slightly after that, it has remained easily the biggest party in Holyrood. It achieved its aim of replacing Labour, which trailed in third place behind the Tories at the last Scottish elections.

Their most stunning success came at the 2015 General Election where the party won 56 seats, leaving Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems with only one seat each. They have not quite sustained that peak success, but even at the last election they won 48 seats with Labour 4^th with only 1 seat.

Since it came to dominate the political scene the SNP, under Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, succeeded in welding national aspirations to progressive aspirations among much of the population and the left. There was a misplaced belief, not only within Scotland, but also beyond, that Scotland was a different sort of place, led by different sorts of politicians which, as an independent nation, would become a social democratic haven, contrasting with the Tories’ domination in England. Among the radical left there was a belief that independence would change things sufficiently that a new socialist movement would emerge, with the SNP splitting and not then being dominant.

THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW

Things look rather different now, but even at the time these arguments were flawed, based on a natural hope for something better but without any real evidence that Scotland would shift so dramatically after independence. If that were so, then why not before? It was also based on an undeserved reputation for competence ascribed to the SNP. Much of this was due to Sturgeon’s presentational skills and the tight discipline imposed in the party, which allowed no dissent. So there was little challenge to the central myths of SNP progressiveness and competence, though even before this crisis it had begun to unravel a bit.

Despite their defeat at the independence referendum, which led to Salmond’s resignation and Sturgeon replacing him, the SNP and the constitution have continued to dominate Scottish politics. A generation of young people have come of age with this as the defining political terrain rather than that of class.

Despite the unravelling of the SNP just now there is little thinking on the left about using this opportunity to recast the discussion to move away from the failed and divisive constitutional politics of recent decades. In particular there is now the chance to be more critical of the SNP’s record and to pick apart the conjoining of progress and independence. Prior to this any critique was muted as criticism of the SNP was seen to be an attack on the independence project. So people self-censored and critics of the SNP were disbelieved or condemned. That has now fallen apart as the SNP slugs it out in internal warfare. It is incumbent on the left to have its own class critique of the state of Scottish politics, independent of the different possible constitutional options that people might favour.

SNP RECORD

The history of the SNP has shown that it is not automatically to the left and that nationalism can take on many hues. The SNP’s current reputation for being to the left is built on some slender achievements, a lot of anti-Tory rhetoric and is belied by the appalling state of public services, actual pro-capital economic policies and incompetent management.

To set these out would require an article in itself, but some headlines include:

A failing NHS and public health system. A recent report from The Health Foundation stated that life expectancy in Scotland has declined by 4.4 years since 2013 and there has been a persistent increase in inequality, especially child poverty. This is worse than other parts of the UK. The problems that plague the NHS more generally are also bad in Scotland – ambulance waiting times, people waiting for treatment etc.

Educational attainment has been declining for years in Scotland. By 2019 it was performing just behind England. Though reading had improved a bit that year, maths and science had continued to decline. In 2021 the education system in Scotland was condemned in an OECD report as not keeping up with developments in education.

The SNP’s proposals for a so-called National Care Service have been universally condemned by trade unions and care providers. It proposes to centralise the current patchwork of provision, retaining the private sector.

A complicated bottle recycling scheme pioneered by the Greens in government with the SNP is widely recognised to be unworkable, though the Greens are keen to press ahead Yousaf has said it needs to be reviewed. At the Green’s insistence Humza Yousaf has announced a legal challenge to the UK government’s blocking of the Scottish Parliament’s proposed legislation on Gender Recognition Reform. This challenge stands zero chance of winning and will be hugely costly defending an unpopular policy.

In terms of incompetence there is also the terrible situation relating to Western Isles ferries which are absolutely essential for islanders to access services on the mainland and for the economy, especially tourism. Two new ferries were commissioned by the Scottish Government in an at best flawed, at worst corrupt, process. The first ship was due to be in service by mid-2018, but 5 years later neither it nor its sister vessel are yet operational and the costs have spiralled. The original contract was awarded for £97 million. By the end of September 2022 the costs had risen to £340 million. Audit Scotland announced in November 2022 that it was unable to account for £128.25 million in public money spent on the ferries by their builder, Ferguson Marine. It was also unable to trace how a £30 million Scottish Government loan to Ferguson was spent. Meanwhile ferries in the existing ancient fleet often break down leading to cancelation of services. There is now talk of the army being drafted in.

There is plenty of other evidence for the pro-capitalist policies of the SNP. It is there to be seen in its Sustainable Growth Commission Report of 2016 which prescribed fairly standard capitalist economic policies for an independent Scotland, especially the need to cut the budget deficit implying a massive cut in public expenditure otherwise known as austerity.

During the leadership race, Kate Forbes, who made much of her pro-business credentials, won 48% of the vote. Whilst she was overtly the most pro-business, the winner, Humza Yousaf didn’t put forward a programme which would challenge the status quo.

Then there was the sell-off of the seabed of the North Sea at knock down prices to renewable energy companies, a classic pro-capital privatisation. Like all privatisations the plots have been sold for a one-off fee. In other words the Scottish people get a single payment, while the companies continue to reap profits for ever into the future. In this case the sell-off netted just under £700 million pounds, describe by critics as a “pittance”.

The SNP/Green Government plan to establish Scottish Green Freeports. Sticking Green in the name and including warm words in the prospectus do not change the essential nature of the freeport beast, which is a neo-liberal project to reduce standards and help transnationals avoid taxes.

PUT CLASS FIRST

Despite the actual track record of the SNP, class aspirations were merged into national aspirations but were always likely to remain unfulfilled as the dominant sector of the nationalist movement, despite some social democratic trimmings, is pro-capitalist.

Hence in the name of working class interests, working class voters were voting for capitalist interests. This is hardly an unknown phenomenon. It is how capitalist electoral politics works - but we should be clear that in this respect Scotland is no different from anywhere else.

Scottish opinion remains almost evenly divided for and against independence. That has fluctuated but has not substantially changed in recent years. A way out of this fruitless division would be a positive change. Many still support independence but without the SNP providing clear and credible leadership towards that goal it is more likely, for the time being, to be a general aspiration than an immediate political prospect. So now there is an opportunity to show that what independence supporters want in terms of a better future, can be achieved by refocusing from the constitution to class politics.

We might not be able to immediately break out of the deeply embedded constitutional framework of Scottish politics, but we can begin to challenge it with a class based political agenda independent of whatever constitutional solutions people support and regardless of which party is in power. The left can now think beyond appealing not only to those who support independence or further devolution but also to those who are against these and still want to see their lives improve. Bringing together supporters and opponents of independence for working class, anti-capitalist objectives will trouble capitalism more than the SNP has done.

 

 

Sturgeon and Salmond architects of the SNP’s rise both now former First Ministers photo by Scottish Government

The M V Glen Sannox 2017 spruced up for the official launch that year by Nicola Sturgeon. The windows on the bridge are painted on. It is still under construction today. Pic by dave souza

Despite their defeat at the independence referendum, which lead to Salmond's resignation and Sturgeon replacing him, the SNP and the constitution have continued to dominate Scottish politics.