03.10.1996

SNP déjà vu

It certainly gives a feeling of déjà vu to listen to the Scottish National Party at its annual conference. Choruses of “Rise now and be the nation again” and “We are on the brink of a final breakthrough in Scottish politics!” have been resounding in my ears ever since I can remember. Yet Mr Salmond’s party has, on the basis of its standing in the opinion polls, every right to be thinking positively. Labour’s referendum debacle, and anger at Labour authorities’ cuts in public spending, has left the SNP as the major recipient of disaffected Labour support, with SNP standing in the opinion polls at around 30%.

Its conference was however a fairly typical pre-election rally. That was until Alex Neil managed to offend Labour’s sensitive secretary of state-in-waiting and those delicate flowers, the Scottish media, by comparing George Robertson to the Nazi collaborator, Lord Haw Haw. Not a very clever or inspiring analogy, one would have thought, but enough to get the party faithful on their feet, stomping and cheering their approval of Alex’s description of traitorous George.

In a week when the tabloid press had been compared to the Gestapo by Cardinal Winning, it seemed like just more indulgence in hyperbole.

The overreaction by the media and Labour’s Scottish office has been hysterical. I am sure that Labour officials have been praying for this since the start of the summer to divert attention from their own incompetent political posturings, as another ‘socialist’ legacy is unceremoniously ditched. But who would have thought the press would have gone along with them? We are not just talking about the overtly pro-Labour Daily Record and Sunday Mail. It seems The Herald and Scotsman, after nurturing nationalism on a daily basis for some time, have suddenly got cold feet, as support for the SNP grows. Editorials accusing Alex Neil of presenting the unacceptable face of nationalism have angered Alex Salmond on two counts. First of all it has detracted from the thrust of the SNP’s election strategy which, if to be successful, must win in the sleepy rural Scottish hinterland, as it did in the European elections and secondly, Salmond does not like anyone stealing his thunder. It was Neil and not Salmond who stole the show at Inverness.

The much vaunted SNP economic strategy was a pivotal part of the conference this year. Designed to win businesses and the CBI onto the clear-cut independence bandwagon, rather than the confusion of Labour’s parliament, it served to show what a pro-capitalist party the SNP is. The real danger of the SNP comes not in the form of Neil’s attack on Labour, but in the form of creating an illusion that the SNP is a radical party and that an independent nationalist Scotland will benefit the Scottish working class.

As Labour and Tory become indistinguishable, so the vacuum in British politics needs to be filled. Nationalism is attractive because it selects ‘easy enemies’. It is built on scapegoat politics and can lead to chauvinism and exploitation: one nation believing it is better than another. In Britain this is not to deny the existence of greater English chauvinism, which manifests itself in the refusal of many south of the border to recognise the fundamental right that Scotland must have to self-determination.

Only socialism leads to true democracy and to internationalism. The working class in Scotland wants to ditch the Tories but does not trust Labour. The nationalists could well see an upsurge in support in the coming months. It is the duty of socialists and communists to expose nationalism for what it is and identify the real enemy: capitalism.

Nancy Morelli