by Rab Bruce’s Spider

The latest polls suggest that an increased Tory majority in the House of Commons is far less certain than it appeared a few weeks ago. Some people are even suggesting Labour’s recovery could result in a hung Parliament. Now, we all know how accurate polls can be, so let’s not get too excited about any of this, but the changes in the polls do have implications for Scotland.

To begin with, there is no doubt that a Jeremy Corbyn victory would be preferable to another Tory Government, even though Corbyn is not a good leader, is very anti-Indy and is pro-Brexit. None of those things augur well for Scotland, but at least he’s not wilfully cruel like the Tories.

Having said that, it seems unlikely he will be able to form a Government because the Lib Dems will inevitably back the Tories in a coalition in the unlikely event that the Tories do not gain an absolute majority, although British politics is so weird, who knows what will happen.

What the Labour mini-revival, or rather the disastrous Tory behaviour in the campaign so far, has resulted in, is a re-awakening of the cries that Scottish voters should support Labour in order to keep the Tories out of power. There are, though, several problems with heeding this rallying call.

First of all, Labour are anti-Indy. If Scottish Labour were to regain a substantial number of seats from the SNP, the chances of Scotland ever becoming a normal country would be greatly diminished.

Secondly, Scottish Labour does not really support Jeremy Corbyn. They may be a branch Office rather than a separate Party, but they really don’t like Corbyn at all, so who, exactly, would we be voting for?

Next is the very real problem that Scottish Labour are so anti-SNP that, as the recent Council elections have shown, they would rather support the Tories than form even an informal alliance with the SNP. This tribalism is so bad that Corbyn would prefer a Tory Government than rely on SNP support of a Labour Government, while Kezia Dugdale’s only election strategy appears to be to oppose the SNP and to call for voters to vote Tory in order to keep the SNP from winning seats.

Then there’s the problem of Labour’s recent voting record in the House of Commons, where they have repeatedly shown themselves to be supportive of Tory policies. Corbyn may talk a socialist agenda, but recent voting suggests he’s more in tune with Tory philosophy than he claims. Labour don’t appear to realise that abstaining from a vote is not opposing the motion. Anyone who watches Parliament TV or checks Hansard will know that the main opposition to the Tories has come from the SNP.

And, finally, there is the very big issue of EVEL which completely scuppers Corbyn’s call for voters to support Labour in Scotland. Let’s assume that, for once, Scottish votes swing the election. If every single Scottish constituency went to Labour and that was just enough to give them a majority in the House of Commons, it still wouldn’t help Corbyn operate an effective Government. That’s because Scottish MPs aren’t allowed to vote on English matters. Without a majority of English MPs, Corbyn could enact no legislation on English matters. In other words, EVEL has confirmed to an even greater degree, that Scottish votes don’t really count in Westminster.

So forget all the calls to support Labour because only they can defeat the Tories at a UK level. If you want to vote in the best interests of Scotland, then there really is only one choice on 8th June. There are many voters in Scotland who would love to support the greens, a genuinely socialist Labour Party, or some other socialist Party, but the reality is that, until Scotland becomes a normal country, such votes are not going to count when it comes to Westminster. The only thing we can do on 8th June is support the SNP and return as many SNP MPs as possible to show Westminster that the desire to live in a normal country has not diminished. Once we gain normal status, then the field is wide open when it comes to voting, but the Westminster elections are not the time to dilute the pro-Indy vote.