SNP ideology like that of cavemen - Tony Blair

TONY BLAIR has said the SNP is a “reactionary political force” with an ideology similar to that of cavemen.
Tony Blair accused the SNP of blaming others for Scotlands problems. Picture: GettyTony Blair accused the SNP of blaming others for Scotlands problems. Picture: Getty
Tony Blair accused the SNP of blaming others for Scotlands problems. Picture: Getty

The former prime minister accused the party of blaming others for Scotland’s problems, stating that nationalism is “the oldest politics in the world”.

Mr Blair made the comments during an appearance at the centre-left Progress think-tank in London.

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Labour lost all but one of its Westminster seats north of the border in May’s general election as the SNP made sweeping gains.

Asked if he feared the party might disappear “just like Woolworths” from Scotland, Mr Blair said: “No, I don’t think we will. All political parties could in theory, but I don’t think we will.”

He said he had spoken with some Scottish Labour figures who were “depressed, as you would expect” following the election result.

Giving them advice felt like being someone who had spent the war at home telling veterans of the Somme how they could have done it better, he said.

Turning to the SNP, he said: “We have to take the ideology of nationalism head-on.

“Nationalism is not a new phenomenon. When they talk about it being new politics, it is the oldest politics in the world.

“It’s the politics of the first caveman council, when the caveman came out from a council where there were difficult decisions and pointed with his club across the forest and said, ‘They’re the problem, over there, that’s the problem’. It’s blaming someone else.

“However you dress it up, it’s a reactionary political force.”

Mr Blair said thst the nationalists had been allowed to “behave like an opposition” while in government at Holyrood.