A case for independence to break through the lies of the far right

We are facing a serious political crisis. The next Westminster general election is four years away, given the size of Starmer’s majority in the Commons it would require a rebellion of unprecedented magnitude to unseat him. Despite the rumblings of discontent from Labour’s left wing old guard, there is little likelihood of there being enough back bench pressure to either force Starmer to U-turn on his apparent determination to take the Labour party into political territory formerly occupied by the Conservatives or to bring about a leadership election – which as we know from prior experience with the Tories – would not bring about a general election.

With the current state of polling, Labour and the Tories are keen to avoid an early election as it would only result in a wipeout for both parties at the hands of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, a party which lies to the public even more cynically than either Labour or the Conservatives but which until its recent success in the English local elections has enjoyed the luxury of not being in power anywhere and so was able to criticise without responsibility, not having any track record of its own to defend.

The saying goes, a week is a long time in politics, and by that token four years is a geological eon. In Scotland, this time last year, the SNP were facing a near wipe out at the hands of Labour, and indeed that’s what happened at the Westminster general election although the scale of the Labour victory was magnified by the vagaries of the first past the post system and Labour was only a few percentage points ahead of the SNP in terms of vote share.

That said, as things currently stand, the “We’re not racist but…” far right English nationalist party of Nigel Farage looks to be on course to form the next Westminster government, a possibility which should strike dread into any supporter of Scottish independence, anyone who values international standards of human rights, or indeed truth and common decency.

The far right is capitalising on widespread public disenchantment with the current state of politics, a politics which is clearly not working for far too many people. People don’t vote because they feel that voting doesn’t change anything and that political parties don’t keep their promises. Under such circumstances they are easy prey for the far right, which offers deceptively simple solutions to complex problems and which presents itself as a radical break from the failed establishment.

It is of course a con trick, the far right is intensely corrupt as a glance at Trump, Putin or Orbán proves, the relentless grifting of Nigel Farage does not bode well for his financial probity once he achieves the power he craves, but the authoritarian far right needs only needs to win a democratic election once, then it can clamp down on the media and chip away at the rule of law and the freedom to vote in order to secure its power indefinitely. The UK with its unwritten constitution, unfair Westminster voting system and no clear separation of powers is uniquely vulnerable to a far right take over. Farage does not need anything close to majority support in order to secure near absolute power. Starmer enjoys his crushing Commons majority on just over one third of the votes cast in last summer’s Westminster general election. Even Trump needed to secure almost half of the votes cast in last year’s presidential election. Farage doesn’t need to come close to that and he will not be constrained by a written constitution if he does win a Commons majority.

As I wrote in my previous blog piece, centrist politics are failing, and you certainly don’t defeat the pernicious influence of the far right by aping their policies as Keir Starmer is doing. The only way to defeat the far right is from the left. That means unashamedly promoting policies in favour of nationalising vital public services, the redistribution of wealth, and rejoining the European Union.

Such a pitch needs to be central to the campaign for Scottish independence. All too often as independence supporters we retreat to the comfort zone of arguing that policy differences can be thrashed out once we have obtained independence, as the entire point of Scottish independence is that it establishes the sovereign right of the people of Scotland to decide their government and its policies for themselves. While that is certainly true, it risks trapping us in a catch 22 position, we want people to support independence and try to avoid promoting specific policy positions in order to broaden public support for independence as much as possible, but people will be reluctant to commit to independence if they don’t know what it means in practice in terms of policy differences from what we currently have.

The Wellbeing economy promoted by Believe in Scotland offers a potential route out of this impasse, one which polls extremely well. The essential essence of a well being economy is that economic growth must be harnessed to create the greatest good for the greatest number and that quality of life, fairness, equality, happiness and health must all be given equal weight to the promotion of economic growth. Without policies aimed at redistributing wealth, Starmer’s fixation on economic growth as a panacea will only result in the rich becoming even richer and will do nothing to remedy the deep unhappiness felt by the many who feel marginalised and excluded.

The key points of this approach are given here
https://www.believeinscotland.org/wellbeing

The bottom line is that if we present independence as being an end unto itself we will only ever appeal to those who are already committed to it. We need to populate the dream of independence with a picture of what it can achieve and how it can make people’s lives better in practical and concrete ways. If we can do that we will be able to demonstrate that a wish for independence is the settled will of the people of this country and we can break through the current political impasse on independence. With England being seduced by the snake oil salesmen of the far right and dragging Scotland along in its wake, there’s never been a more oppportune time to present a progressive, compassionate, and above all humane vision of what Scotland could be like, free from the hatred and fear mongering of the far right.

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