I have just read the transcript of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Scottish Labour Party Conference. It reveals an interesting, but entirely predictable set of priorities of the London-based - and led - Labour Party.
Reluctantly summoning up my old work study and quality control techniques, I endured the utter tedium of counting the key word references in this speech, which revealed that, as far as Miliband Minor and his shadow Cabinet are concerned, the Scottish Parliamentary election on May 5th is simply a vehicle for getting London Labour re-elected at the next general election.
(For the masochists among you, I have appended at the end of this blog the word sequence as it emerged in time terms through the speech . I will understand if your eyes glaze over …)
Today’s Herald headline summarises the recent opinion poll results as follows -
Labour narrowly ahead of SNP in election poll
Even the giant amoebic brains of Iain Gray’s campaign managers can grasp the significance of this, with the SNP rapidly narrowing the gap, just 4 points behind Labour in the constituency vote and 3 points behind on the list vote. Allied to the fact that Alex Salmond is the most popular politician in Scotland by far, and Iain Gray is almost invisible, Scottish Labour know who they have to beat on May 5th. The Scottish Tories remain an endangered species in Scotland, at 12% constituency and 13% for the list votes, and represent no threat, except in terms of alliances in a minority government or even a hung Parliament.
But Ed Miliband clearly sees them as the enemy, because he mentions them no less than 25 times in his speech. The SNP, in contrast, are mentioned just four times and the LibDems get six mentions.
Little Ed isn’t fighting the Scottish election, he is fighting the next general election for London Labour, and the Scots are just cannon fodder for that battle.
It takes Ed quite some time to get to mentioning Scotland in his opening, because he is worried that David Cameron is strutting his Britain-as-a-global-player stuff on an international stage of sorts over Libya, and has given a pretty good imitation of a statesman. It just ain’t fair - Maggie had her war, Blair had his wars, and now Ed is being denied his war, and the PR and electoral edge that violence abroad gives to UK Prime Ministers.
So after a token “It’s a pleasure to be here at the Scottish conference”, he opens with Libya, and the topic centres go as follows -
Libya, internationalist party, overseas aid,the Balkans, international community, Colonel Gadaffi, armed forces, possible combat, Libya, Libya, Middle East, Middle East, Palestine, Israel, Palestinian people, then at last - Scottish election.
The agenda is clear. The UK - and the British Prime Minister - only haves real identities through foreign policy and their capacity to intervene anywhere across the globe in the affairs of other nations: Scotland is there to slavishly feed that identity by a disproportionate blood sacrifice of its young men and women, as it has done since the Union of 1707, and the faster they contribute to defeating the Tories and letting Ed occupy the role of Commander-in-Chief, the better.
Of course, given the annoying propensity of the Scots to want to run their own affairs, including their foreign policy, and to decide how and when they put their armed forces in harm’s way, Ed Miliband has to wrench himself back to his ostensible purpose for being in Scotland - to support his puppet Scottish party, and the man they unfortunately chose to lead them, Iain Gray.
(I have no doubt whatsoever that an independent Scotland would have played its full, voluntary part in supporting the UN against Gadaffi, as a sovereign country within Europe.)
The term independence dare not be used in the Scottish context, so Miliband uses separatism, in the fond unionist belief that it is pejorative. (I am more than happy to be called a separatist!)
Miliband is also forced summon up a concept that is all but invisible to the Scottish electorate - Iain Gray’s leadership.
Iain Gray’s leadership is a kind of dark matter in the Scottish Labour Party - it ought to be there, it is difficult to explain his selection as leader if it is not there, but no one can find it. Perhaps if Iain Gray was passed at high speed though the Large Hadron Collider by Professor Brian Cox, a particle of that hitherto invisible leadership might fleetingly become visible - even a charisma particle - Gray’s Bosun -might flicker for a moment before it too vanished into the primeval soup of Holyrood Labour.
But the first mention of the Gray leadership particle is speedily followed by the following terms in quick succession - Tory Threat, Scotland, Poll Tax, Scotland, Thatcher, The Tories, Scotland, The Tories, The Tories, The Tories …
And so it goes on - and on - for some time, alternating Scotland and Iain Gray’s leadership as if they bore any connection to reality.
Then, way down the list and well into the speech, the SNP makes its fleeting appearance - four times only, in contrast to the Tories 25 mentions, with two reference to Alex Salmond. The tired old Arc of Prosperity argument is trotted out yet again, with gratuitous insults for Ireland and a great silence on Norway.
Labour heroes of the distant and more recent past - Keir Hardie, Donald Dewar and John Smith - are given a reverential mention, all of whom are spinning rapidly in their graves at the contemptible thing their beloved Party has become under the current crop of expedient nuclear warmongers.
Read the full speech if you can. But here is the list in sequence - judge for yourselves -
ED MILIBAND
It is a pleasure to be here at the Scottish Conference.
Libya
internationalist party
overseas aid
the Balkans
international community
Colonel Gaddafi
armed forces
possible combat
Libya
Libya
Middle East
Middle East
Palestinians
Israel
Palestinian people
Scottish election
Scotland
Westminster
Tories
Holyrood
Scottish people
Tories
Tories
Scottish Labour party
Iain Gray’s leadership
Tory Threat
Scotland
Poll Tax
Scotland
Thatcher
The Tories
Scotland
The Tories
The Tories
The Tories
Labour
Tories
Scotland
Iain as First Minister
Labour
Scotland
Iain as First Minister
Iain's leadership
Scotland
Labour
Iain's leadership
Scotland
Scotland
Britain’s
Scotland
Tories
SNP
SNP
Scotland
Tory threat
Scotland
Tories
United Kingdom
Conservative-led government
London
the Tories
Scotland alone
separatism
Europe
Scotland
Iceland
Ireland
Alex Salmond’s
Arc of Prosperity
Scotland
Britain
Tories
Westminster
Holyrood
Scotland
Tories
Tories
Tory Government
England’s
England
Tory manifesto
Liberal Democrats
Nick Clegg
Britain
Liberal democrats
Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrat
UK
Tories
Scottish
Welsh Assembly
Westminster
Labour
Labour
the Tories
Labour
United Kingdom
Scotland
David Cameron
Liberal Democrats
SNP
Tories
Alex Salmond
separatism
Tories
Labour
Labour
Edinburgh
Scotland
UK
General Election
Oldham East
Barnsley Central
Paisley
SNP
Westminster
Liberal Democrats
Conservative
Scottish Labour
Keir Hardie
John Smith
Donald Dewar
Iain Gray
Scottish Labour
Wester Hailes
Scotland
Tories
Scotland
Iain Gray
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