How the SNP and Labour killed off left-wing politics

Ms Shore though, would never have dared try anything like this had she not been emboldened by Labour’s direction of travel under Sir Keir Starmer. Since becoming Prime Minister, Sir Keir has systematically dismantled his party’s election manifesto pledge by pledge. Society’s neediest groups are bearing the brunt of his deception.

It’s why the former Scottish Labour MP, Neil Findlay – one of the most committed party members north of the border – ripped up his membership card after 35 years. Mr Findlay, like many authentic Socialists, was radicalised by the 1984/85 Miners Strike, the Poll Tax and the anti-trade unionism and militaristic fetishism of the Thatcher era.

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Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party would now enthusiastically endorse Mrs Thatcher’s position in all of these areas. Quite how you can call yourself a Labour supporter while backing Rachel Reeves’ welfare cuts and Sir Keir’s dangerous jingoism in Ukraine is beyond my understanding. And if you’re a professional Labour politician elected by those who will be worst affected by Sir Keir’s betrayal then you’ve become something even more contemptible.

Yet, almost as soon as Sir Keir was elected leader he dropped broad hints about the nature of any government led by him. In speeches he talked about partnership with business while flanked by Union flags. His calls to patriotism as he set about hounding all those self-identifying as Socialist from the party offered further clues. Still though, the rate at which he has embraced Thatcherism has been astonishing.  

Mr Findlay, who represented the solidly working-class Lothian constituency at Holyrood for ten years had observed something also become evident to me during this time. This was the steady stream of rootless party drones who had come to settle in the party.

There’s an expectation of MSPs representing nominally left-wing parties that they’ll harbour a passionate belief in something to do with the class struggle. But the current political class at Holyrood – with a few exceptions – seem bereft of a firm belief in anything. They pick up their money; remain silent as their pensions are topped up and make not a single intervention or improvement on behalf of their communities.

And when they’re not neglecting the concerns of their most disadvantaged voters, they actively mock them. Behold the SNP, perhaps the most duplicitous and dishonest party in the UK. Many of the SNP candidates who have somehow passed vetting for the Holyrood elections were thrown out by the voters last year.

Once the SNP had politicians like Jim Sillars - now they have 'a grim little cohort of jackals' (Image: free) Meanwhile, the social media profiles of those seeking to succeed the 20 or so SNP politicians who intend to resign seem drawn from the ranks of the party’s young Matalan Army, a grim little cohort of jackals who are programmed to attack those whom the party leadership deems disloyal.

It all points to the final defeat of authentic left-wing politics and it’s been inflicted by a cross-party class of middle-class culture warriors whose opportunities were secured by those whom they now routinely mock. Once, we had Dennis Canavan, Donald Dewar, Jim Sillars and Margo MacDonald. Now we’re getting Dipsy, Tinky-Winky, Laa-Laa and Po.

The malaise has also taken root in the trade union movement whose six-figure salaried barons have chosen to forsake their working-class female members in favour of the boutique, middle-class caprices of the gender activists. If the unions can’t stand strong in the face of this well-financed policy grab then everything else they hold dear could also be sacrificed. In this, the unions are following the SNP who have been ditching all that it once held sacred in favour of the gender cult.

The rise in popularity of the death industry among left-wing politicians is visible in support for Assisted Dying legislation which will inevitably target the most vulnerable in society. Perhaps they think that if there are fewer living poor people then that means there are fewer of them claiming benefits.

How has this happened? It’s as though, having lost the will to solve generational inequality they’ve gone for the lower hanging fruit signified by cultural identity issues. These only require slogans and flags rather than hard decisions favouring the communities they were meant to serve.

This includes adopting global wars where they take safe positions at a safe distance. It relies on brute ignorance such as when a summit to bring peace reach in Ukraine was hosted in Saudi Arabia by a leader who had a journalist abducted and dismembered.

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Scotland’s foreign policy currently runs to sticking the Ukrainian flag in your socials; being outraged by Elon Musk and the American president and a junket to New York every year for Tartan Week. Scotland’s political classes have reduced this country to the status of Freedonia under the leadership of Rufus T Firefly.

It all relies on the complicity of a counterfeit liberal media, parts of which have also been captured by the risk-free adherence to identity politics. It’s why the police can turn up at your door and demand you recant your questionable views on social media, while they overlook the violent abuse and harassment of feminists and lesbians whenever they gather to speak. Shouting about hurty feelings has replaced a desire to ask governments and the forces of the state why they’re neglecting the poor in favour of a cult.

The places where authentic left-wing politics once resided have now been annexed by corporations spending billions appropriating apparently radical issues such as Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ and climate change and turning them into an investment portfolio.

It’s where the battle against drug and alcohol deaths means feeding addicts more poison, but in environments safely far away from the leafy neighbourhoods the politicians and legislators and police chiefs and health executives live. Then again, if you can get more of these poor people to kill themselves it reduces the pressure on public services. 

Kevin McKenna is a Herald writer and columnist. He’s fiercely proud of never having been approached by any political party or lobbying firm to do their bidding.