THE railways and how they are run are an emotive issue for passengers and the wider public. Knowing this, political parties have a tendency to see them as a potential point scorer with the electorate. Scottish Labour is no exception. For that reason the party lately has been talking up a rail fares freeze and proposed nationalisation.
The only problem with Labour’s proposals is that they have a hollow ring for some within the party’s political ranks and the rail industry itself. With a Blairite perspective, former UK transport minister Tom Harris might not be everyone’s cup of tea politically, but he knows a thing or two about the infrastructure of our railways.
So for him, one of Labour’s own, to call the Scottish party’s campaign on railways north of the Border “totally unrealistic populism,” and the proposals for nationalisation a “red herring,”can be nothing but damaging. Mr Harris pulls no punches either in pointing out that Labour has been less than transparent with the public about the fact that only through tax hikes could a rail fares freeze be funded.
A “dishonest solution to a very complicated problem,” is not the way to win the support of the electorate. Similarly, as one railway industry insider has said, Labour complaints about the failings of the railways have done little to win the party support among some of the 7,500 people who work in the industry in Scotland.
At times the party’s approach has left many workers feeling as if they personally,overcrowding and ticket prices. All of this is a prime example of how not to win friends and influence people positively at precisely the moment when the Labour party in Scotland and UK-wide needs all the allies and support it can get. The “populist” positioning of the party in its efforts to gain short-term political advantage over the railways issue risks backfiring.
This can only pile more pressure on the Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale. It does not bode well either for the party’s morale and fortunes in next May’s Scottish local government elections, which some political observers believe could be cataclysmic for Labour.
The latest railways wrangling appears part of a wider disconnect and disquiet within Labour ranks north and south of the Border. Ian Murray, the only Labour MP representing a Scottish constituency, is said to have had next to no contact with party leader Jeremy Corbyn. This suggests a party with serious internal communications problems at precisely the moment an academic study concludes that Labour is facing the toughest electoral pressures in its history.
Writing in a report for the UK in a Changing Europe think-tank, politics professor Matthew Goodwin, of the University of Kent, says Labour is faced with “big questions” about its ability to survive as a competitive opposition. The report points to “a deep and widening divide in the political geography of Labour support,” and describes its position in Scotland as having “fallen of a cliff.”
As the latest spat between Mr Harris and the party in Scotland demonstrates, Scottish Labour appears in serious danger of going off the rails.
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