Scottish Labour is too dismissive of the independence referendum

Words can be buggers some times. Particularly politicians’ ones if not carefully chosen.

In the days after the Holyrood election, Labour tongues, numb from licking yet more wounds, revealed a couple of things about what was wrong with their thinking.

Kez Dugdale has been dignified and decent since her heavy defeat. But in defending her party’s strategy she revealed some of the things that were wrong about it.

RELATED CONTENT

John McTernan: Nicola Sturgeon has a huge stash of political capital - now is the time to spend it

Kevin Pringle: All parties will now have to cope with pressure that comes with governing

Geoff Aberdein: The SNP can succeed by being both humble and hungry

“I fear for the future of Scotland if every vote is defined by what you did on that one day in September,” she said.

Now, I get the sentiment. I would like to move on from constitutional politics. 

But to describe the referendum as ‘what you did on that one day in September’ is far too dismissive.

It would be like me saying my life hasn’t been defined by ‘what I did on that one day in April’ when I married my wife. Or that ‘one day in May’ when my daughter was born.

These were enormous events which have shaped my life wonderfully. And the referendum has reshaped Scotland profoundly.

I have a number of dear friends in the SNP. People I have grown up with and who would be there for me, as I would be for them, in tough times.

I greatly like and admire my fellow Holyrood columnists, Geoff Aberdein and Kevin Pringle.

When a ‘No’ vote was delivered on that ‘one day in September’, after the most exhausting, fractious and painful of campaigns, I felt hugely relieved. In my mind, Scotland had voted to do the best thing for Scotland.

But I didn’t feel euphoric. I knew my country was divided. And I knew that my friends and many others on the Yes side would be as devastated as I feared I would have been if we had lost.
I didn’t expect people like Geoff and Kevin to just put their jackets on and decide that was the issue finished.

The positions we took on that ‘one day in September’ are seared into our souls.

We cannot as a country be expected to have moved on less than two years later.

And politicians like Kez need to deal with the world as it is and not as they would wish it to be.

Yet she said: “People liked our ideas but they were not ready to vote for us because of the constitutional cloud that hangs over us.”

That acknowledgement of Scotland’s political weather was a nod in the direction of reality, but the phrase ‘not ready’ to vote for us conjured up in my mind the idea of a supermarket fridge filled with cellophane wrapped ‘Labour ready voters’, like oven-ready chickens. Twenty minutes at gas mark 6 and we’re done.

Scots are not born with a Labour voting gland which can be tickled to produce votes.

People aren’t waiting to vote Labour.

They need to be convinced. And for that to happen the party has to have a case and, crucially, one that it is prepared to argue for with passion.

Scottish Labour’s arrogant expectation of natural support has meant they have lost the confidence to persuade people of their point of view.

They don’t need to let the constitutional question dominate. But as they chase those Labour voters who voted Yes, and who now vote SNP, they shouldn’t try to hide where they stand.

Glasgow City Council leader Frank McAveety also revealed a hole in Labour’s thinking when he said of Ruth Davidson: “Heaven forbid, but maybe she’s managed to rid Scotland of the memory of Thatcher.”

If Labour’s strategy rests on the ghost of a dead woman who left office more than a quarter of a century ago – four years before Scotland’s youngest MSP was born – then heaven help us.

Scotland can move on from the constitutional question without having a second referendum.

But if Labour wants our nation to do that, it must clearly make the case for why we should and not just ignore it.

Rather than use her words to defend a strategy which has seen her party come third, perhaps Kez should just look back at it and say “bugger”.