Simon Pia: Labour must regain their centre-left ground

An American friend passing though last week was intrigued by the Scottish political set-up: “You’re pretty unique. A centre-left opposition and a centre-left government. I can’t think of anywhere else like this.”

Much of this was due, I pointed out, to a “pretty sophisticated” electorate that increasingly wrong foots political parties and pundits.

Three elections in the last three years and each time it has sent back a different, nuanced message about what it wants for Scotland.

In 2010 it was anti-Tory, with one London headline declaring “Scotland’s never-ending love affair with Labour” as the rest of the party in the UK was crashing to its worst defeat in 80 years.

Twelve months on and Scottish Labour was brutally dumped with the historic triumph of the SNP – not so much an endorsement for independence as a rubber stamp for a decent first term.

This year the nationalists have been reined back. Don’t get too big for your boots, Mr Salmond has been told, while Labour have been given the nod – we’ve not forgotten about you, now get your act together.

But what is clearer than ever is the battleground in Scotland is now firmly on the centre-left, with the Conservatives and Lib Dems marginalised.

Scotland may not be as left-wing as some claim, but undeniably a strong communitarian and egalitarian streak continues to assert itself in our politics while rejecting Conservatism and never fully embracing the neo-liberalism of the past 30 years.

Last Thursday’s vote was a welcome reprieve then for Labour and it has given it a platform to reclaim the ground it has lost to the pseudo-left nationalism of the current SNP.

No-one predicted that Labour would control more councils than the SNP and be the largest party in the three big cities. But its basic message of jobs and services resonated as the SNP are currently being viewed primarily through the prism of constitutional politics. It’s not somewhere the SNP want to be and they avoided it at the 2011 elections, but all that has changed with the imminence of the referendum. Now Labour has the chance to shake off the caution, conservatism and defensiveness of the past decade which has seen its vote eroded election-on-election at Holyrood, and not only embrace radical reform but offer it as well. The feint-hearted need only look across the Channel for encouragement.

But a mistake Labour cannot afford to make is revert to the steady-as-she-goes approach which it did after its Scottish success in the 2010 general election. The analogy of carrying a china vase across a polished floor – be careful, don’t drop it – failed to recognise Scotland had moved on while the party was still in 1999.

A major part of the problem in the past decade has been how the SNP piggyback on Labour policy, such as the living wage, but has been able to outflank the party on the left over the Iraq war and Trident.

Labour has to face down the SNP’s populism and efforts to be all things to all people rather than a genuine centre-left party. The council tax freeze and proposals to cut corporation tax are two examples. Both are essentially regressive policies, of more benefit the richer you are. The corporation tax cuts are also another sign of Alex Salmond’s instinct for neo-liberal economics.

An anecdote in Brian Monteith’s column yesterday, about Salmond schmoozing Peter De Vink and like-minded friends, reveals more about the First Minister than he would want. The electorate are beginning to pick up he’s a lot more comfortable doing that than trailing round a housing scheme meeting mother and toddler groups or unemployed youngsters

But the clearest fracture in any centre-left image is his courting of Rupert Murdoch. Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont landed a telling blow by saying “he likes the company of rich men” – and not just any rich men, but two whom many Scots find particularly objectionable.

But while Labour must exploit this divide with the nationalists, they cannot rely solely on the SNP or Salmond’s shortcomings. One overlooked factor in Labour’s victory in Glasgow was the cull of candidates. Unusually ruthless for Labour, a sentimental party, it did no harm in the election with the general mood “not before time”. It showed Labour had got its house in order. While such huge culls are not to be necessarily recommended or indeed warranted, it focuses on the quality of candidates.

There is a message here not just for Scottish Labour but the party as whole across Britain, which was highlighted by defeats in the London mayoral election and George Galloway’s success in Bradford. The party has to reform its selection process and introducing primaries would be a step in the right direction, a sign Labour is opening itself up and reaching out to more people. It is not a closed shop.

No doubt many Labour representatives will recoil in horror, but with such a public disaffection from politics there is a need to regain trust, interest and involvement in the process. If there was a general election next week, Labour would probably hold most of its seats in Scotland, but the same cannot yet be said about Holyrood. The party has to focus on boosting Labour’s image in the Scottish Parliament rather than allowing it to be viewed as a “B” team compared to Westminster.

Good candidates, radical reform and policies as the true party of the centre-left will take time but one positive step would be to move party HQ from John Smith house in Glasgow to Edinburgh, home of the Scottish Parliament.