
![]() THE last time there was a Labour government in Westminster and an SNP government in Holyrood was 18 years ago. That was in the middle of a financial crisis and only lasted two years. 2010 was the first time that a Scottish government had to deal with a Tory UK government.
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![]() IF I may adapt that old expression used of the US economy, it seems that if leader of the British Labour Party Keir Starmer sneezes, Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, gets a good deal worse than a bad cold. Starmer’s December Ipsos poll ratings show only 27 per cent of respondents were satisfied with his performance, with 61 per cent dissatisfied. This comes on the back of a slew of controversial policy decisions and, more importantly, an economy that is showing little sign of the growth Starmer promised, even if it is very early days of the promised infrastructural projects. ![]() ANAS SARWAR, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, took everyone by surprise — at least everyone outside his inner circle — when he announced last week that should Labour win the 2026 election in Scotland, all pensioners would receive a payment of the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment which will be paid by Social Security Scotland. ![]() IN THE discussion around the Budget, you may have noticed the odd reference to “modern supply-side economics,” much beloved of the Biden and now the Starmer administrations. Supply side economics in Britain was an ideological approach shared by both Labour’s last administration and of course the Tories. ![]() THE Scottish media is, naturally, dominated by the death of Alex Salmond. His life makes good copy: a stellar rise to almost achieving independence in the referendum of 2014 as leader of the SNP and First Minister of Scotland to a prolonged fall. First, he announced his resignation as leader of the SNP and first minster immediately after the failure to win the referendum and then in 2020 he faced a criminal prosecution on charges of sexual assault. The jury returned not guilty verdicts on 12 charges and a not proven verdict on a charge of sexual assault with intent to rape. ![]() THE crisis of capitalism, which provided the context and to some extent fuelled the vibrant Yes campaign described by Coll McCail in his excellent article on Wednesday, is still with us. The question which has haunted the Scottish left before and since the referendum is how we can maximise unity in order to challenge the power of capital in Britain and Scotland ![]() JUST IN CASE there was still any reason to believe that somehow Scotland does not harbour an anti-immigrant and racist right, this last year has demonstrated beyond doubt that such assumptions are very wide of the mark. The evidence has not only come in polling forecasts, and actual votes, but from the streets ![]() CONGRATULATIONS to the Scottish Labour Party (SLP) for its part in the victory over the despicable Tories on July 4. It won 37 seats (65 per cent) on a 35.3 per cent share of the vote, higher than Labour’s Britain-wide share of 33.7 per cent. Although, as in England and Wales, it was a victory gained in the face of a spectacular collapse of its main rival, in Scotland’s case, the Scottish National Party (SNP) which lost 39 seats on a 30 per cent share of the vote, leaving them only 9 MPs in Westminster (16 per cent). ![]() IN NOVEMBER 1922 thousands gathered to cheer off the new group of Glasgow Labour MPs (they were all members of the ILP) as they took the train to London from St Enoch’s railway station. James Maxton, the newly elected MP for Bridgeton, famously told the crowd that “they would see the atmosphere of the Clyde getting the better of the House of Commons.” He was referring to the culture of the Red Clydeside which emerged during the first world war. It had fostered industrial unrest, rent strikes and revolutionary figures like John Maclean. |
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