The feeding frenzy over Labour’s corpse is gaining momentum with the Unions demanding their pound of flesh and a lurch even more leftward than Red Ed promised to deliver whilst others in the party also say the problem with Labour’s election pitch was that it wasn’t Marxist enough, others want to disinter New Labour on whose grave Miliband junior danced…to the Union tune.
Labour was always badly riven by Miliband’s leadership but it wasn’t something the BBC dwelt on preferring to tell us that the Tories were in chaos and so divided about subjects such as Europe and immigration that the party was likely to blow apart.
Once again the BBC was spot on in its analysis.
So why drop a winning formula when you’re on a roll? The BBC continues with its perspicacious political rune reading as Peston tunes in to the vibes….
GE2015 and the economy
If there was one policy associated with the Tories it was further deep spending and welfare cuts to generate a budget surplus.
If there was one policy associated with the Scottish National Party it was an end to deep spending and welfare cuts.
Which means that if the integrity of the United Kingdom is to be sustained, somehow a way has to be found – and presumably fairly fast – to reconcile the English vote for more austerity and the Scottish vote for an end to austerity.
Sorry what’s that? The Scots voted for an end to austerity? Did they heck.
Such an interpretation is a complete misreading of the politics that gave the SNP such a landslide win.
Here’s a chart which shows the number of MPs each party won over the years…note in 2005 the number of Scots MPs was reduced from 72 to 59…..
It is clear from that that Labour had held steady for years right up to the 2010 election and that the LibDems were in fact more successful than the SNP…..and then came 2015. The SNP vote had nothing to do with austerity or independence. If the Labour voters had wanted an end to austerity they could have voted for Labour…..but they didn’t, so there must have been another reason.
What changed in the last 5 years in Scotland? For Labour there was a change of leadership and the hopeless Miliband put in place by the unions whilst the SNP possibly benefited from Salmond stepping aside and having the fresh leadership of Nicola Sturgeon who is still in her honeymoon period especially after her performance in the UK TV debates…though not doing so well in the ones in Scotland. That honeymoon period will soon wear off once people start analysing what she really says….her claims to respect democracy when all the time looking to ride roughshod over the independence No vote and impose the SNP’s own party preference and her lies about not wanting independence and immediately the election is over starting her demands for it.
Scots did not vote for the end of austerity when they voted for the SNP. What they saw was that Labour was dead in the water in the UK and that it was a wasted vote for a party that wouldn’t win as a whole. A practical decision was made to vote then for the SNP more as a protest vote against Labour having taken them for granted with the only other choice being the Tories, not going to happen, or the LibDems who, as we know, were even less palatable across the whole of the UK. The only choice left was the SNP. How long the SNP’s dominance lasts depends on Labour resurrecting itself and taking the fight back to Scotland…..I doubt the SNP will be anywhere near as successful in 5 years time as reality sets in and more choices appear.
In the rest of the UK Labour voters went to UKIP…again nothing to do with austerity…they couldn’t bring themselves to vote Tory so they had a protest vote against Labour and its policies on immigration, Europe and the dismal, uninspiring leadership of Miliband.
So in Scotland Labour and Libdems voted SNP, in the UK they mostly voted UKIP…Tories being beyond the pale.
Peston is wrong in claiming that a wish to end austerity was the defining factor in the SNP vote…it’s a convenient narrative for a reporter who seems inclined to put the Labour side all too often……it is an interpretation designed to put pressure on the Tory government of course….the BBC claiming that Britain is now divided and that the Tories don’t have a mandate in Scotland. Unclear why that is so…..they weren’t exactly popular in Scotland over the last 5 years as the chart shows so why have things changed because Scottish Labour MPs have turned into SNP ones? Not quite sure how the SNP expects to be given favourable treatment in respect of austerity. Do they expect to be given relatively more money than the rest of the UK so that they can dodge the cuts? Not sure that would go down too well.
It does look like the BBC is giving the SNP’s line a helping hand in order to split the UK and encourage independence and cause the Tories as much trouble as possible….how often have we heard the BBC kick off a debate about devolution in Wales and the regions? Destroying the UK is a project the Left have long worked towards with Europe being the ‘State’ of choice to rule over a divided and regionalised ‘Britain’.
Perhaps the BBC should be broken up and its powers and huge income devolved…perhaps devolved not to regions but to those with a different political persuasion than the liberal metropolitan elitism on display at the BBC so that all people are truly represented by a news service that doesn’t sneer and look down on them and generates hate against them.
The BBC is already anticipating SNP’s argument and building this for them. They are still continuing to promote the myth about Tory cuts and cuts and cuts, despite the fact that the last Tory-Liberal coalition doubled the national debt and is running a deficit of 90 billion. There is no balance and it is always implied directly that any cuts to public spending are bad, and any promises to not cut public spending are good, all of the time ignoring the National Debt and the Deficit.
“..the last Tory-Liberal coalition doubled the national debt..”
The more this lie is repeated the more people will believe it.
2010 £0.76 trillion, 2015 estimated £1.36 trillion, so probably another couple of years before it may become true.
It was said again and again, but hardly reported on the BBC, in 2010 that it would take 10-15 years to re-build the country after Labour’s fiscal ineptitude. Expect things to get slightly worse before they get slightly better etc.
And how many people, in real terms, voted for the SNP to give them their 59 seats? Only 1,454,436. The Conservatives, on the other hand, got 11,334, 576 votes, whilst UKIP received 3,881,099.
Let’s skew the stats another way Bob Pest.
Only the BBC could Do a report from a Tory seat with an iinceased majority – Harlow and a very popular local MP and show interviews with people who criticised the new Government. Not one interviewee was pro Tory.
I saw that on the 10pm news last night. Unbelievable.
(Paraphrased) ‘So do you think the Tories are the party for the working class?’ to a couple of young garage lads. ‘Nah, they’re for the toffs innit’.
Could have been Miliband/Owen Jones speaking. Uncanny.
The proles getting spoken for a lot now.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/12/rightwing-press-bbc-john-whittingdale-telegraph-mail?CMP=share_btn_tw
Interesting piece. Again it is being argued Mr. Whittingdale is actually a good sort for the BBC, so the ‘right wing press’ is actually wrong.
Then again, the story is also littered with nameless sources enough to be a BBC investigative report.
Plus a few gems:
“In this environment, the “absolute accident” that saw the BBC press office retweet and then quickly delete a post attacking Whittingdale’s hardline stance on social justice issues such as gay marriage was foolish.”
Those ‘absolute accidents’ do keep happening, and one way, don’t they? Which is the point.
The comments below simply rehash tired old cliches. Our family has not watched SKY either since we ditched the DD soon to be loaded on our council tax demand (apparently), to make things fairer for those who need vital EastEnders services. No great loss. Because there others available… By choice.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/12/tories-not-at-war-with-bbc-says-business-secretary
Make love; not war
My expectations for any worthwhile reform of the BBC are low. Whatever tweaking there might be of the funding arrangement I can’t see the ingrained leftists bias being addressed between now and the next election.
I agree, not least because the problem lies with the staff.
It’s well recognised that people recruit those like themselves, so after a while any organisation takes on a distinct character – the BBC being a shining example.
To change the BBC, you would have to sack and re-hire, top to bottom.
There are problems with this – the most obvious being that our universities’ humanities departments are very often little more than socialist spawning grounds, so when you try to get people who can commission arts programming, you are going to get Lefties because that’s all there is.
Sadly, journalism has largely gone the same way so, like johnnythefish, I am not confident of any significant change being possible, even were it to be attempted.
The SNP is simply the Scottish version of a Labour Party. Not the incompetent Labour Light of Tony Blair or even the Anti-business version of Red Ed but the Full Strength 40 a day Euro-Soviet version that kills a country with economic cancer quicker than you can say, ‘where’s me haggis’? They just want to spend lots of hard earned English cash, send England broke and then stamp on us.
The much repeated phrase ‘we will end austerity’ has no meaning. You can’t wave a wand and end austerity, you have to allow business to create wealth, by making things or selling things. Only free enterprise can do this. Something the naive but dangerous Nicola and Alex do not understand. Nor of course did the two Eds, or their Scottish bully boy mentor Brown.
The thing is I can understand the Scots wanting more say over their own affairs and resenting the Westminster elite’s arrogant control, but rabid socialism is completely the wrong direction. The UKIP model would suit them better.
As for Miss Nicola thinking that her 56 MPs can dictate what happens in the Commons, I shall watch with some amusement as that policy falls into dust. A majority is a majority and it is a Conservative majority and I see hints of a more determined Cameron now the wet LibDems are as dead as a dead parrot. We shall see.
The SNP with the BBC’s help have set Scotland apart from the rest of the UK in a very spiteful way. It will serve no good purpose and has set England against the Scots and they will be the ones to suffer for it. The Scots cannot beat England, whether inside or outside of the United Kingdom. In short they are fools.
If the BBC really cared about the Scots they would point out that socialism and excessive spending without encouraging and helping business will only bring financial and social chaos. We have seen it before with socialist regimes and all over the world not just here. However, that is just what the BBC is, a dysfunctional socialist organisation with shed loads of our cash that has even got away with turning the blind eye to evil people like Saville. It simply does not understand business or social responsibility, let alone the need for companies to make profit.
What other business could get away with sending its customers to prison for not wanting its services? The BBC are the corrupt criminals with no morals not the vulnerable and poor women who open their doors to immoral officialdom.
The BBC has only ever been a negative influence on the business and social aspects of this country. An archaic anachronism. It must be starved of anymore cash from the budgets of hardworking families in this country. Go on Dave – SHUT IT.
Good analysis Old Timer. Hope Devo-max gives them much more control over their own National budget and tax raising powers to cover, simultaneously depleting the Barnet formula current unfair benefits paid for by the rest of us in the Union.
You watch SNP support disappear as soon as the reality of paying for their own social perks like no tuition fees, elderly care etc become unaffordable.
The sort of costly socialism put forward by SNP was tried in Venezeula.
I hope you are right but here in Wales despite the increase in the conservative vote labour rule supreme! The NHS crumbles and the education system is a disgrace but its England’s fault, I fear the Scots will fall into the same trap!
I hope you are right but here in Wales despite the increase in the conservative vote labour rule supreme! The NHS crumbles and the education system is a disgrace but its England’s fault, I fear the Scots will fall into the same trap!
I don’t think your analysis of politics in Scotland is correct Alan.
Labour lost in Scotland because of complacency within its own Scottish party taking its votes there for granted. It lost because of the parade of Metropolitan career politicians from a wealthy elite who can never connect with ordinary people, still less ordinary people 400 miles away, of which they know little.
A perfect example of this was Emily Thornberry’s tweet from the Rochester By Election.
Sturgeon has campaigned on many issues, unlike Labour who concentrated on the NHS almost to the exclusion of everything else. Austerity was a big part of her policy for Scotland.
The union leaders alas are right. And wrong !
If Labour wants to win back Scotland it is going to have to move much further to the left, if it wants to challenge wee Jimmy Krankie.
On the other hand if it does move to the left it will alienate English voters, and there’s no place on the see saw where Labour has a winning position.
The worst scenario possible for Labour is another Metropolitan Elite leader which alienates everyone ! Yet it looks like that’s exactly what they will do in Chukka Ummuna, who thanks to the Fascist intolerance will be the only choice, other wise you’re a waycist. To this end they have built him up as the ‘British Obama’ without even realising what a disaster Obama has been for the USA.
As I see it Labour cannot win a majority before 2025 at the earliest, and after that it depends on Labour having made substantial in roads into Scottish National territory.
Just to make things more difficult for them the boundary changes will get rid of more Labour seats than Tory ones!
I don’t think the Metropolitan elite including the BBC actually realise what has happened at the last election. I don’t think they can understand that their brand of intellectualised ‘we know best’ kind of politics has been soundly rejected.
They will plough blindly on always doing what they have always done, and getting the same result, until someone in the other parties makes a major screw up and potentially lets them in.
I confess I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what happened up here to cause such a collapse in the Labour vote up here and now I’m not sure the Labour Party in Scotland can recover. What’s the point in two socialist parties now the electorate realises it can vote SNP and it won’t automatically mean independence? No, the SNP can hoover up votes by promising jam for everyone and then blaming the English for not providing enough money.
Which is why I now reluctantly believe Michael Forsyth is right and that the solution is full fiscal autonomy for Scotland to make it face up to its responsibilities. That the SNP have rowed back from asking for this tells me they know that they’d be up shit creek in that event.
What is also interesting is that BBC Scotland have, since the election, behaved as if there are only two parties in Scotland. I’ve heard nothing but SNP and Labour. Ruth Davidson has increasingly impressed as the Scottish Tory leader and if she takes the lead on reform up here things could get very interesting.
“I don’t think your analysis of politics in Scotland is correct Alan.”
When is it ever?
“As I see it Labour cannot win a majority before 2025 at the earliest, and after that it depends on Labour having made substantial in roads into Scottish National territory.”
Why? If Scotland had returned 59 Labour MP’s they still would not have won a majority.
No they wouldn’t have a majority with ALL the Scottish MPs, and that’s the whole point !
Without making substantial in roads into the SNP majority Labour can’t hope to make the numbers needed for a majority.
As things stand Labour are at an all time low, with nowhere to go but up, yet they are so far from a majority that the seat gains they need are an impossibility. Without gaining the Scottish seats then they are doomed to a future of opposition or at best coalition.
Well I for one am thoroughly enjoying the lefty meltdown having been in despair this time last week.
I know it won’t last……
I also saw the interviews from Harlow,you couldn’t make it up.BBC interviewer implied Harlow was a recent Labour stronghold and it wouldnt take much to return it to Labour.To show people happy with the result would be against their narrative.
There has been no comment on the absurdity of the SNP position.
Determined to leave the UK.
Determined to stay in the EU.
Rab C Nesbitt thought processes in action.
It’s not absurd at all really. There’s a perfectly rational argument for hard government which addresses priorities at a more local level and soft government that reflects the fact that business doesn’t respect national borders.
There have been a few stirrings in London along similar lines, albeit without the Scottish socialist slant.
Here’s hoping the unions, the left and the BBC continue to argue that the election was lost because Labour was not left enough and that the gormless, gullible, working classes were driven to vote Tory by the lies they lapped up from the Mail and Murdoch press. That’s it lads – you have to get your message across to these dumb workers. They’ll appreciate it. Torykutz Out, Out, Out! join the anti austerity demos.
On the World Service ‘Newsroom’ programme, yesterday, from about 14 minutes in, there was strong evidence of the BBC managing to talk about the Tories for a few minutes without sneering. David Cameron was even given about half a minute in his own voice:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02qp17m#auto
This was such an extraordinary event that I was unsure it was the BBC.
But it couldn’t last. Here’s Rob Watson, generally quite balanced:
“One striking phenomenon of last week’s election was the existence of so-called ‘shy conservatives’ – people who somehow felt embarrassed to tell pollsters they were going to vote for the centre-right party. If David Cameron can make open and proud to be conservative rather than shy and retiring, he really will have transformed not just his party’s fortunes but Britain’s whole political landscape….”
Is it just me or is Watson trying here to divert attention from the strange workings of the polling organisations?
I’d be fascinated in feedback from my esteemed colleagues on this site.
But right now I have to run to keep the wolf from the door.
A few minutes earlier, on the same programme: it transpires that the secular Bangladeshi blogger hacked to death by Islamic terrorists might still be alive had Sweden not refused him a visa to address a gathering of Swedish Pen.
Seems that Sweden is now officially a dhimmi state.
“…………… her claims to respect democracy when all the time looking to ride roughshod over the independence No vote and impose the SNP’s own party preference and her lies about not wanting independence and immediately the election is over starting her demands for it.”
It would be interesting to see Alan’s evidence for this claim. The only people referencing another Referendum (pre and post election) were the London based parties!!
Sturgeon has been clear that the General Election was nothing to do with Independence and that it will be the Scottish electorate who dictate the timing of any future Referendum.
Good to see you back. Those tasked to cover the election period were often sub-par. That said…
‘It would be interesting to see … evidence for this claim’
That actually forms the basis of many a public complaint to BBC Complaints or FOI.
Almost to a fault, the response will be shrouded in exemptions and mystery, from invoking the all-persuasive value of ‘BBC editorial integrity’ to the need for the BBC not to clarify who is saying things they happen to like hearing and seeing aired for all sorts of reasons, like ‘journalism’.
On rare occasions explanation is teased out, but usually refers to the ‘views’ of experts with integrity, giving flavours or truthiness and such.
Do you ever query a uniquely-funded £4Bpa state media broadcast monopoly when indulging such things, or is your focus restricted to more niche areas of free discussion forums?
I’m embarrassed to be English;
Because of the stupid headlines about Saving The Union .
If the Scots want to go ; go
Why is it portrayed as the English want the Scots to stay , but we are holding them back , denying them , tricking them , beseeching them, bullying them etc ?
In Poker , the English would be described as a weak player , we would never call anyone’s bluff. Doubly frustrating as we have a strong hand . A strong hand if we accept that they can have independence , and we benefit too .
Let’s start with , why do we want to be linked to the Scots apart from sentimental reasons ?
I’m not convinced the majority of Scots do want to go. They just want to have their cake and eat it.
However they may, like the Slovaks, make too much noise and land up with separation anyway.
What is the point of having cake if you can’t eat it, I say.
I’d rather the Scots stayed, for their sake not ours! If they go they will be something like the 23rd largest country in the EU. Why do that if you can be part of the 3rd largest? If they think Germany and France will let them keep their oil revenues then they have sadly mistaken their ‘allies’. Just remember what the EEC did to the UKs fisheries to see how they operate.
Naturally those in the EU wishing to see the break up of the EU would be happy to promote this but they will soon tire of the Scots.
They must be barking …
“Let’s start with , why do we want to be linked to the Scots apart from sentimental reasons ?”
As sentiment plays no part in politics it seems clear that there must be a very good financial reason for Westminster to be so determined to preserve the Union.
Surely, if Scotland is such a drain on the UK’s financial resources in this time of “austerity”, Westminster should be supporting the chance of Scotland leaving the Union.
Finding an alternative deep water port for Trident, for one.
Agreed . Let them go . Time will sort it out. . Are you for or against ?
BBC TWATO interviewing an Imam not very pleased that Theresa the Appeaser is going to ban the preaching from the Qur’an !
Of course the Naivety of the London politicians means that they have no knowledge of what the Qur’an contains and are happy to believe the lie that terrorism is a perversion of the Islamic religion, and not the truth, that terrorism is at the heart of it, and inseparably a major part of the Islam faith.
The relentless analysis by the BBC of ‘where did we….er …Labour go wrong?’ continues ad nauseam .
The more perceptive analysts are now saying that it was Labour votes going to UKIP that lost them many seats.
I can’t resist the idea that Captain Millibland of the Titanic REFUSED to see the UKIP iceberg approaching as his Navigator ,Lieutenant Kelner, reported that his instruments were in perfect working order and they showed that there was no iceberg ahead.
Now the Beeb is into ‘Raise the Titanic’ mode!!
The analogy of Liebore as a sunken wreck that belongs in the early years of the 20th Century is somehow apt.