by Rab Bruce’s Spider

It’s been an interesting few days in Scottish politics, with the media asking us to believe in a few things which, quite frankly, stretch credulity.

to begin with, they have been doing their best to protect Colonel Davidson from the ramifications of her agreeing to allow two suspended Councillors to be reinstated in spite of their publicly expressed racist and sectarian views. Of course, it can be argued that everyone is entitled to a second chance, and perhaps these two individuals might undergo a complete transformation in their outlook. However unlikely that may seem, hopefully it will result in them curbing their natural instincts when it comes to making abusive comments online. Quite how that will work in the environment of a Council meeting remains to be seen.

What is most annoying about the saga, though, is the media reaction. While the case has been mentioned, the witch-hunt we could expect had it been the SNP who had behaved this way has been noticeable by its absence. One could argue that this is a good thing if it heralds the beginning of a less vitriolic media, but it is probably fair to say that the gloves will come off again should any SNP representative step out of line. I hope I’m wrong on that, but I doubt it.

As for Labour, the Scottish media continues to allow them to operate without any suggestion of real challenge, so it might be worth making some points which the media seem reluctant to comment upon.

This is relevant because Jeremy Corbyn has begun his tour of Scotland, pushing his campaign to overturn the Tory majority in Westminster by … um, targeting SNP seats which might be vulnerable in the next General Election which isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.

It’s a very strange decision from a strategic point of view, since even if Labour did win those seats in a General Election, it would do nothing to diminish the Tory majority. Still, Corbyn is entitled to spend the summer recess campaigning in any way he likes, so what has he been proclaiming in his efforts to persuade us all to vote for him and topple the Tories?

Oddly, he seems to be perfectly happy with the Tories, aiming all his comments at the SNP. His latest wheeze to undermine the campaign for Scottish independence is to announce that a federal UK is on the table if he becomes Prime Minister.

Wow! But wait, haven’t we heard that before? Wasn’t there a Vow of some sort?

Of course, Corbyn could claim that he wasn’t in charge last time and he really, really means it. Except that Labour have been talking about Federalism for years and have never done anything about it. There are, as you would expect from a slogan, no details at all on how this federal structure would operate. Would it mean England being split into regions? What powers would the devolved administrations have? We don’t know, and we’re not likely to find out. Still, he may be sincere, but perhaps the only way to tell whether he means it is to look at the other things he’s said recently and judge how reliable he is from those remarks.

Or what he has not said. He has been very quiet on Brexit. All his appeals to Scottish voters ignore the fact that Scotland prefers to remain in the EU, while Corbyn is dead set on a hard Brexit. How does he square those views? By ignoring the question and being allowed to do so by the media.

Having dealt with that thorny issue by pretending it does not exist, he has said that the SNP should use the powers available to them to reduce the impact of Tory Austerity. That’s something, isn’t it? Note, though, that he appears to have no problems with Tory Austerity itself. Indeed, he is perfectly happy to maintain most of the cuts the Tories are pushing through, and Labour’s voting record on Austerity measures and things like the Public Sector Pay Cap speak for themselves.

So he’s in favour of Austerity, but wants the SNP to do something about it. What he appears not to have noticed is that the SNP have already done a great deal. To mention just a few things, they already mitigate the Bedroom Tax and the removal of Housing Benefit from Under-21s; they have established the Scottish Welfare Fund to provide emergency funding for distressed families; Community Care Grants provide support to assist independent living; they have mitigated Westminster cuts to Council Tax Support and Child Allowances; they set up the Scottish Independent Living fund to assist Disabled people; they are currently setting up a Scottish Social Security Agency and have announced that Private Companies will not be allowed to undertake Fit For Work assessments; they have announced that they will introduce a new Funeral Expenses Allowance within the next two years. And those are on top of the fundamentally anti-Austerity social measures like free prescriptions, free University tuition, and maintaining bursaries for Student Nurses.

So, if the SNP are doing all that, why is Corbyn claiming that they need to use their powers to mitigate the Tory cuts he himself would impose on Scotland?

What he’s getting at, of course, is the powers over Income Tax. What he is essentially saying is that Scots should pay more tax for the privilege of being part of the UK. OK, that’s maybe a bit unfair. If Scotland were a normal country and able to set all of its own tax rates, we may well end up needing to pay a bit more for all the benefits of the social policies we want. That is not a bad thing in itself, since many countries, notably the Scandinavian ones, have higher tax – higher social benefits strategies, and they’re doing OK. The problem with doing that while Scotland remains part of the UK is that our taxes currently go towards funding a whole host of things Scotland neither wants nor needs. Think Trident, HS2, London Crossrail, etc. So why should we pay more income tax to mitigate policies we didn’t vote for, especially when the burden of the additional taxation will fall on individuals rather than corporate entities who are expertly avoiding tax under UK tax rules?

What Corbyn essentially seems to be saying is that, if he became Prime Minister, he would continue to impose Austerity on Scotland and that Scottish Labour, if in power in Scotland, would raise income tax in order to offset the impact of his own policies. When you put it like that, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it? It’s certainly not very appealing from a voter perspective.

However, let’s see what Corbyn has to say on another issue, because he’s claimed Labour will build more social housing to address the current shortfall. Again, we must suppose that he will adopt a different approach to former Labour Governments who managed to build 6 new council houses in their last term in office. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt because, after all, he’s a new leader and the SNP aren’t addressing the problem at all, are they?

Actually, they are. While there are petty squabbles over whether refurbishing derelict properties counts as new build, the SNP Government has created over 30,000 new homes and is aiming to increase that to 50,000 by the end of the current term in office. It may not yet be sufficient to meet the demand, but it’s a damn sight more than 6 and, given the funding constraints imposed by Westminster, it’s quite impressive.

So, can we trust Corbyn’s claim that he will bring about the much-vaunted Federal UK? Based on his failure to mention Brexit, his lies about the SNP mitigation of Austerity, his desire to maintain Austerity cuts and his failure to acknowledge that the SNP are actually building new social housing, his track record on truthfulness isn’t exactly unblemished. The fact that he is targeting SNP seats instead of Tory ones isn’t really in his favour either because it shows that, at heart, he is happy to maintain the Westminster status quo and keep Scotland within the Union.

Personally, I’m struggling to see where the appeal lies in all of that.