Tuesday 7 October 2014

LABOUR SHOULD BE WORRIED, SAYS POLITICS LECTURER

According to Dr Thomas Lundberg (above middle) of Glasgow University, reported in the Press and Journal, rising support for the SNP could mean it would win Labour seats in the Westminster election. He thinks many of the SNP’s new followers are disillusioned Labour supporters, unhappy with the joint platform with the Conservatives during the referendum campaign.

Dr Lundberg said that many of the new members are disillusioned with Labour and pointed out the numbers of people who have been filmed online burning their Labour membership cards.

“There has been a shift to the left for the SNP which means really big problems for Labour and campaigning so much with the Conservatives isn't going to do them any favours” he said.


The politics lecturer said the intervention of Gordon Brown at the end of the campaign might have helped the party a bit, but there would be what he described as a “reaction” if Holyrood did not receive significant new powers.

Dr Lundberg  warned that there could be problem for Nicola Sturgeon, when she takes over as leader, because many of the party’s new members want another referendum right away. 

He pointed out that the party would have to manage expectations, but if they could get significantly more devolution and could show that that might well lead to independence then that could satisfy the majority.

He also said that although the SNP have their problems, the kind of problems they have are the kind other parties would kill for.

Membership has soared by 52,000 to 77,000 in the last two weeks and local meetings have been packed and overflowing.

15 comments:

  1. Tris

    Not so sure about Labour getting pumped at this stage, I do suspect the SNP might make some gains next May and I really hope McGovern is one of them, I am just not convinced that those that voted no will not give them another chance at Westminster. I guess we will just have to wait and see but I do think Labour will have a hard time on the door step, but whether that amounts to a vote for YES parties remains to be seen.

    I do think the massive increase in membership for the SNP will create some problems. There will be people wanting a clearer shift to the left, some might want a quick referendum but I don't see that being the bigger issue. I think there will be difficulties when some of the older, more conservative SNP and pushed aside by the new membership who will push for change. I have even heard some people talk about a change of name, no I have some sympathy for that but it would create a huge problem the party doesn't need at this point. The new members need to get behind a campaign to cause as much damage to the unionist tory parties as possible next year.

    Bruce

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    Replies
    1. The trouble is that change always causes some people some hassle, Bruce.

      But change is needed. We can't go on like this.

      It would be good to see some of the dinosaurs disappear. Certainly you need to be rid of mcGovern.

      I've never liked the name of the SNP. It's not nationalist, but it gives people the chance to call them the Scottish Nationalist Party. ... The Scotland Party would be more to my taste.

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  2. The snp are shifting to the left...........perhaps the snp should start worrying
    the newbies are gonna be the hardest of the hard left and they are gonna go
    to places were the old snp didn't wanna go.

    With no Referendum on the near or far away horizon there is no glue to hold
    the snp together. Perhaps they should call themselves THE NEW SNP
    has a certain ring to it

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    1. Great video, thanks CH

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    2. Niko. That's democracy

      Of course we could say that the bulk of the membership want Labour to be left wing. My mate Theo was at the conference in Manchester. He had a go at the social security spokesman about the Tory policies they have in place on what they insist on calling Welfare, and what I insist in Social Security.

      It doesn't make any difference. They will do what they have to do to win the south east of England, and if that means starving kids and under 22s with no dole, nowhere to live and no food... well, so be it.

      We are in a new place. It''s not just the referendum and Brown's promises. It's the demise of the Liberals. There are probably going to be 7- 9 Liberal seats up for grabs in Scotland.

      The UK changed on Sept 19 whether it needed to or not.

      I'd say it did. We shall have to see where the new democracy takes us.

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    3. Superb video CH. I've put it up as a post with acknowledgment and followed David on Twitter.

      Delete
  3. What Labour won't have is home grown activists on the ground just the state propaganda corporation who are treading a very tight rope after their recent conduct.

    The aim for 2015 will be to unseat Labour in as many seats as possible and that will call for discipline and a well thought out plan for each constituency. Conference next month and would hope that they kick the BBC in the bahookies.

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  4. Replies
    1. They need to face the consequences of the fact that they urged us to vote no to save their own fat cat jobs, but with almost every other indicator showing that ordinary people are going to be worse off under a neo-liberal government in Westminster which cares far more about filling its boots and killing foreigners than making life tolerable for Scots... or indeed even preserving Scottish life. How many have died at the hands of Osborne and Smith?

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  5. tris

    And thats from the guy who said the trade unions in the 1970s were to left wing
    and now its the snp thats all fine and dandy.............you do understand they dont
    believe in the free market and that nationalisation is the panacea to all ills
    especially the Oil , Oor Oil . none of the Oil money flowing abroad to multinationals
    straight into the Big Bank Of Scotland and Oor futures Oil fund...

    Laughs,,,,,,,,,,,,,Mind thats a bloody good idea a rewind of the 1970s only this time
    we win ..By George I will vote for that..the question is tris would you ?????
    workers councils...........bigger pensions......index linked pensions for all
    free public transport .....more employment rights .more holidays more of everything free

    The snp will shite themselves once real leftist policies start to be put forward
    at conference.

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    Replies
    1. Actually they weren't too left wing, Niko. They were too greedy too quickly., more than anything else. They annoyed those people who were trying to use their services or buy their products, because very often they were earning a lot more than THEY were. And so often they went on strike over nothing. Wrong soap, wrong toilet paper, someone looked at someone the wrong way. There was class war and the unions had the upper hand mainly because the management was utterly crap and because, after the war, they just assumed they go go back to the us and them and touch your forelock of the 30s..

      There's no reason why we can't have better pay and conditions without going on strike all the time. Almost every other country in Europe seems to manage it.

      Even in Britain there should have been enough money to go round Niko. It doesn't have to be that some people earn £3 million a year and others only get £6,000.

      And no one ever said oil would solve every problem, but it did make life in Norway a site brighter. Their pensioners don;t doe of the cold. Their young aren't refused social security, and their trades unions don;t ask for the moon on a stick. Furthermore their pensions are funded and they have more in interest from the oil find than the oil now brings in.

      What in the name of god do we have? Another war? massive tax benefits for the better off? Reduction in unemployment benefit from an amount that already you couldnt live on... and the promise that if everything goes well the minimum wage will be at the poverty level of £8 an hour by 2020... Of course we know everything wont go well.

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    2. You speak for us all there Tris.

      Big Thanks

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  6. Seem that the Tory Urban Myth continues to this day which along with Labour, and the SNP brought in the Tories in 1979. No the SNP did not, Labour lost the election because they had pissed off the South East of England and London where even today they talk about the dead lying unburied.
    I am not hopeful that the SNP can overcome the Labour Party in this GE, we will have to see. Too many people slink right back to their old voting habits. I seem to be suffering from a lack of hopefulness. I wonder if those who have joined the SNP have any idea of the struggles still to come. There cannot be another Referendum as some people imagine, certainly not immediately. We would get the same answer. We need to work once more on a frightened or otherwise hostile population, and considering how many changes things like Broadcasting create in this world, US imperialism, Westminster Imperialism, one heck of an obstacle to overcome.

    ReplyDelete