As the rain bounced off the Downing Street pavement and the lectern in front of him, his suit soaking into the shirt and the puddle gathering on both shoulders, even Rishi Sunak must have wondered what exactly he was up to. Here was a prime minister, 20 points behind in the polls – seemingly bringing to an end his unelected premiership 6 months before most expected. The reasons for this untimely and seemingly spur of the moment decision over the 24 hours before remain a mystery to most, including Tory MPs suddenly aghast at the prospect of job hunting before the Euros has came to an end. Alas, fire the starting gun he did. Whether into his own foot as widely expected remains to be seen.
With the record of the past 14 years to defend you can hardly blame him for throwing in the towel, if that metaphor fits with the pictures beamed across the world of a soaking rat deserting the sinking Tory ship. As he spoke, a sudden flashback to my first political campaign, against the Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition of cuts and specifically the bedroom tax came rushing back in my mind. Ironically enough, just as the news of Margaret Thatchers death was beamed across the Bright House TVs inside Easterhouse Shopping Centre, here was 16 year old me helping to build a local coalition against the cruelty they were inflicting on our community and thousands like it up and down Britain.
If then as expected this is to be the last weeks of this rotten, corrupt, heartless Tory Government – then good riddance to bad rubbish has never been more apt. From Sunaks unelected reign, to Truss blowing up the economy, to Johnson and his deceit, to May and her hostile environment and Cameron’s austerity – I’ve fought against them all and hope they are smashed to pieces and for at least a generation rooted firmly and permanently out of political office.
The question of what will replace them looms large however as “get the Tories out” carries an unashamedly deceitful, dishonest, warmongering right-winger to power in Sir Keir Starmer KC. A man who has unceremoniously dumped every one of the 10 pledges made during a Labour leadership campaign to a left wing membership reeling in the aftermath of the crushing of Corbyn in 2019. A systematic purging of the left ensued as both the people and the policy platform have been methodically and savagely consigned to the fringes at best and totally thrown out at worst including of course the former leader Corbyn himself. A Labour Party that has no place for Dianne Abbott nor Jeremy Corbyn but takes in Natalie Elphinke and John Bercow is no friend to working people and it’s hardly any wonder little to no enthusiasm exists beyond the confides of the Westminster bubble for a Labour Party led by this deplorable knight of the realm.
A Labour Party that sacks Shadow ministers for attending picket lines. That sacks front benchers for voting for a ceasefire in Gaza. A Labour Leadership opening up our NHS to private providers on a scale that even Blair’s New Labour in its pomp didn’t promise. That dumps any commitment to clean, green energy to combat climate change. That threw in the bin commitments to nationalise key utilities like water and electricity. That not only stands by but actively supported war crimes on an industrial scale with the withholding of the the necessities of life in Gaza and that refuses to commit to ending arms sales to the genocidal, right wing Israeli regime as it murders children in Arafat refugee camps. A Labour that dumps promises to support workers and their trade unions by repealing anti union laws, banning zero hours contracts and providing a new deal for workers that even Unite the Union have now said has more holes than a block of Swiss cheese! What remains? A cast iron Commitment to continuity Conservatism with the maintaining of spending at Tory levels baked in as our communities and public services are slashed and burn around us. Things can only stay the same as the song goes.
In the case of Scotland our off ramp, get out quick solution of the past decade has also evaporated in front of us as the SNP’s dangling of a referendum carrot has also vanished into the cynical dustbin of history as many of us predicted it would. Used merely as an election tactic by a Sturgeon led PR obsessed machine that refused to engage in the substance of the how let alone the why, independence is now realistically off the agenda for a generation. Such is the legacy of Sturgeon she will play no part in this campaign and the stench of corruption and financial irregularities that hangs over the party in step with a discredited and torn apart public policy platform are what remain.
The new FM has acknowledged as much with a refusal to commit to anything by way of a referendum strategy and his insistence that the election be fought on the ABC of austerity, Brexit and cost of living. Buoyed by the coronation and the appointment of the wee free marketeer in Kate Forbes into the 2nd highest office in the land – Scotlands centre right are on the march. The commitment to no new oil and gas licences, rent controls and a public energy company all seemingly burned on the fire of business reassurance. The desperate pleas to international capital that Scotland, its people and our resources are open to exploitation are what mark the early days of the Swinney Forbes premiership and present what remains of the independence movement and the left of the SNP with a series of major strategic and policy battles to fight in the months to come.
Faced with this backdrop those of us of the socialist tradition would almost be forgiven for packing up the materials and packing it in. However from the ashes of despair and disillusion perhaps presents an opportunity and opening that hasn’t existed for much of my still somewhat young active political life. As the honeymoon with an incoming Labour government quickly turns to nasty divorce it’s imperative at that stage working class people across Scotland have socialist ideas, organisations, political party and their trade unions to engage with. This election will again highlight the failing of the existing neoliberal consensus to provide answers to the burning class challenges in housing, health, education, justice, transport, energy and foreign policy. A failure represented most clearly by Starmer’s continuity Conservatives most who inherit a plethora of instant crises with no ideas and no stomach for the challenge beyond an insatiable appetite for power and power at all costs.
It’s the urgent task then of socialists to construct a left wing, anti cuts, anti imperialist programme and take it into our working class communities, workplaces and onto the streets now, at the elections height and most crucially in its immediate aftermath. It’s the essential and imperative component to counter what will be an understandable disillusionment and apathy at best or a turn to the far right in search of easy answers at worst. The challenges facing us then are great, let our resolve match it.
