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Scottish Parliament election

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Cock-up or conspiracy?

  • Brian Taylor
  • 16 Apr 07, 05:49 PM

I was speaking recently to a journalist who went over to the Dark Side. (He became a Government spin doctor.) As a reporter, he was forever seeking to uncover conspiracies, constantly alert to cunning plans.

In Government, he told me, he had learned that pretty well everything was the result of some cock-up or other.

Well, certainly, most Ministers of my acquaintance are wrapped in a miasma of honourable uncertainty most of the time: unsure what, precisely, is the right course to follow. (That鈥檚 not because they鈥檙e thick but because government is tough.)

I think we can discern cock-up at the core of the controversy over the Scottish TUC General Council鈥檚 vote on whether to back the Labour Party in the current Holyrood election.

Strictly, the debate was over whether to intervene in the election at all by issuing a statement.

Apparently, that motion was only carried by a single vote - with Unison declining to support it.

Somewhat embarrassing, to say the least. Entirely understandably, much is being made of this by the Scottish National Party and others, including the SSP and Solidarity.

The Scottish trades unions are currently in Congress in Glasgow. From there, I鈥檓 told how this came about. I鈥檓 reminded that the STUC is autonomous - despite the fact that the unions created the Labour Party in the first place.

There are unions in the STUC who are affiliated to Labour and unions who aren鈥檛.

It鈥檚 claimed that led to the trouble. Some disliked the idea of a motion backing Labour, fearing it would inevitably divide the STUC. On that basis, they opposed the suggested endorsement - or abstained.

I鈥檓 told that a 鈥渕assaged鈥 version is now being prepared for a vote at the congress on Wednesday. It praises Labour but stresses the need for the STUC to engage with all parties. It encourages folk to vote.

The object, apparently, had been to avoid a divisive issue which might embarrass Labour. Nae luck, eh?

Comments   Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 01:49 AM on 17 Apr 2007,
  • Margaret wrote:

Yeah, but Labour would easily win an STUC motion supporting it in the elections. Especially when the SNP have ignored unions for so long?

Brian's right, i think- cock-up, not conspiracy! The SNP can claim many things, but not, by and large, union support!

  • 2.
  • At 09:57 AM on 17 Apr 2007,
  • Peter, Fife wrote:

Part of the astonishment associated with the STUC vote is based on the false premise that Trades Unionists were, and remain so, died in the wool cloth capped Labour supporters.

I have been a member of a Trade Union through to a member of a Management Association all my working life; although I will admit I have met those stereotypical Trade Unionists, in the main I must admit that those I met were an open minded wide-ranging opinionated group.
The days during which the likes of Arthur Scargill and Red Robbo, along with those of similar mindsets have passed, yet the full extent of the damage to Trades Unionism and our industries they have caused has yet to be fully assessed today.

The chaos that existed in industry permitted Margaret Thatcher to decimate those Trades Unions of the eighties; if Margaret Thatcher had not acted as she did we would be a much poorer country and society today.
Today we have little or no mining industries, (Arthur Scargill) and very little car manufacturing (Red Robbo); while it was the actions of these individuals and their likes who brought our industries to the point of crisis, it was Margaret Thatcher who went a step too far and decimated those very industries.

Trade Union affiliation should not be used as a yardstick to measure the membership of these unions; where the Trades Unions indeed were the creators of the Labour party many Trades Unionists will wish to distance themselves from the corruptions of power that are obvious today in the Labour Party. It must be noted that such corruptions are not limited by political party, more by political power.

This vote is a clear broadside at Jack McConnell and his Labour Party; attempts to massage the vote should not detract from the original message, those who take positives from a massaged vote will merely be grasping at straws.

  • 3.
  • At 09:59 AM on 17 Apr 2007,
  • Fergus wrote:

I have become a regular commenter on message boards. A new hobby.

Two things strike me. There are a bunch of complete nutters and extremists who do this on a regular basis.

The second thing - Brain Taylor's blog is the best place to get decent comment on the election.

I am a trade union member (GMB) but not a member of the Labour Party. I usually vote Labour, but not every time. I will this time though.

I cannot bare the thought of the chaos that will result from an SNP victory. If the people from the SNP who post all these mad comments on these notice boards are anything to go by, their party membership are barking.

These people would be running the country. A very scary thought...

Interseting that their is a suggestion that The Herald has a secret poll which it allegedly won't publish because it shows the biggest lead for the SNP yet - 15% on the constituency vote and 16% on the regional list vote.

Have you heard anything?

  • 5.
  • At 04:22 PM on 17 Apr 2007,
  • interested by-stander wrote:

Fergus

Like you I have recently discovered blogs and boards. Unlike you I am barking (an SNP member). What intrigues me is the question of workers' rights and especially in the area of redundancy and dismissal. We have had our share of factory closures in Scotland, in Ayrshire, Fife and elsewhere, with much weeping and wailing and grinding of teeth by Labour MSPs.

Why is it though that the STUC continues to support a party which , in ten years in office, has failed to reform Tory employment laws which leave ordinary workers at the mercy of lightning redundancy?

Is there now much beyond tradition and habit to link (New) Labour and the TU movement?

  • 6.
  • At 08:58 PM on 17 Apr 2007,
  • Cam wrote:

Fergus sings the Blues?

I guess that brands me a nutter and extremist then, huh Fergus?

You've yet to enlighten me - what makes posters who favour an SNP vote this time around 'nutters' or 'extremists'?

Again, for your viewing pleasure - in case you missed the point.

We are all merely putting over opinion Fergus - and it seems to be fairly popular at that.

I'm assuming you're another who equates anyone that actually backs the SNP or a secessionist view as an 'extremist'?

Granted, free blogs and reader generated content do somewhat stem the tide of the pro-union mass media in Scotland, but I'd be more inclined to note the difference between what people seem to be 'saying' and what people are consistently 'reading' in this country.

That's pretty 'extreme'.

I aslo enjoy Brian Taylors broadcasts - immensely - but I do believe that 'Not doing a Kinnock' smacks of the usual negativity, which in some small manner supports the truly depressing Labour campaign we've all had to endure these past months - capped in their manifesto.

The 'passionate' one Brian comments on. You know? - the 'inspiring' one other 大象传媒 writers mention. '...the weight of history on Jack's shoulders...' and all that nonsense.

I find this extraordinary. The press enjoy every swipe possible at a party that hasn't even had the chance to govern.

Whilst we have a party who fundamentally *cannot* act in Scotland's best interests, next to their London masters.

Iraq? Trident? Cash for honours? Faslane spin? Pension wreck? Al Qaeda attack? Social ties between Scotland and England dissolving? The 'Balkanisation' of the UK? Govan poverty? Decreasing school score cards? Reiterated, tired pledges? Trade Union anger? Phoney party political broadcasts with ex-Labour officials? Boils, rashes and plagues...

Pretty extreme, huh?

  • 7.
  • At 09:02 PM on 17 Apr 2007,
  • Graeme Clark, Banchory wrote:

I have been a union member for nearly 40 years.Tonight I have resigned from Unison after listening to Union leaders giving their support to Labour in Scotland .Unison fought PFI or PPP when introduced by the Tories.When New Labour came in they accepted it as government policy. Now the SNP come up with an alternative they come out against it.They sicken me and I will join millions of others who have no trade union.

  • 8.
  • At 12:01 PM on 18 Apr 2007,
  • Harry Shanks wrote:

These Trade Unionists are a funny lot aren't they?

They pay their subs, the majority don't vote Labour, but they allow their representatives to use those subs to bankroll a party that is now the anithesis of many of the policies they espouse.

Has anybody seen the EIS "They Deserve The Best Education" campaign poster? You have to look at it for a LONG time before you realise it ISN'T an SNP poster! it's printed in Yellow and Black for a start! Considering these huge billboards are only glimpsed briefly by most people as they drive by, one has to ask - is this intentional?

These so-called socialists are a funny lot as well:

I saw Colin Fox on the telly last night. He called Brian Soutar a homophobe and a bigot - can't diagree with that but then he made a big issue of the FBU supporting some SSP Candidates. Would this be the same FBU which had some of its Glasgow based members disciplined by Strathclyde Fire Service bosses for homophobia in a very public case recently?

He must think we are daft!


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