Longer Term Thinking Required

by Rab Bruce’s Spider

 

Mastodon: @RabBrucesSpider1@Mastodon.Scot

BlueSky: @RabBrucesSpider.Bsky.Social

 

 

A recent poll has suggested that Reform now hold a slight lead over the SNP in Scotland. The lead was marginal, and the sub-sample quite small, so it’s not time to panic yet, but what we are seeing is that Scotland is not immune to the rise of fascism. Promoted by the UK media at every opportunity, Nigel Farage has been attempting to outflank Labour on the left. It’s not a difficult task since Labour are far more right wing than in their past incarnations, but Farage has cleverly attracted media attention with the announcement of policies which most people would be in favour of. Scrapping the 2 child Benefit cap and reintroducing Winter Fuel Payments for pensioners are things that Labour should have done but have prevaricated on, using the excuse of needing to stick to artificial, self-imposed fiscal targets. In practice, they have frequently let slip that they are, in fact, ideologically aligned with Tory policies. And it is noticeable that Sir Keir (Knight of the Realm) Starmer has announced that there is plenty of money to pay for a dozen new attack submarines. Spending, it seems, is simply a matter of where your priorities lie, and Labour have shown precisely where there priorities are.

 

But, returning to the media promotion of Nigel Farage’s plans, what they have been less vocal about are his policies on things like abortion rights, privatising the NHS, scrapping Net Zero plans and leaving the ECHR. Now, he will probably be able to persuade a lot of gullible people that leaving the ECHR is a sensible move by invoking fear of foreigners as he usually does, but his plans on those other subjects are an echo of what we are seeing in the USA. For someone like Farage, that will just be the starting point. When, not if, he is Prime Minister of the UK, we will undoubtedly see many more Trumpian policies enacted.

 

If the media would only challenge Farage more, and do so on prime time TV news, things might change, but the man is very good at avoiding scrutiny and not answering difficult questions by deflecting to something he does want to talk about, and the bulk of the media seem distinctly uninterested in challenging him on anything at all.

 

Quite how so many Scots can fall for his populist ranting is beyond me, but I know that these people exist in regrettably large numbers. Labour has played into Farage’s hands, and the hard of thinking will listen only to what they want to hear. Farage gives them that in spades.

 

What Scotland needs is to wake up to what is happening. If you think the Tories and Labour are hard-line Unionists, Reform Ltd will be even worse.  Another poll has suggested a     significant lead for Yes if Farage becomes Prime Minister, but it will be too late by then. I do wish more voters would think more long term in their voting strategy. Farage, like Johnson and Truss before him, is a symptom of the UK’s problem. He will not be around forever, but others like him will continue to be produced by the UK’s outmoded electoral system and its right wing media. Scotland needs to become a normal, self-governing country because that is the  … well, normal thing for a country to do. We cannot afford to wait until it is too late. We need to escape the Union before the inevitable happens, and we need some dynamic leadership to spark some fervour for independence. At the moment, unfortunately, that dynamism is sadly lacking from our political leadership.