Peter Curran

Why I am voting SNP

On May Day 2007, guest blogger and long time Labour voter Peter Curran Explains why

In the Glasgow of the late 1940s, if you didn't support the Labour Party, you were either well-off or something more complex, aspirational. My widowed mother and I lived in a decaying tenement in Dennistoun; my father had died of tuberculosis, after the humiliation and degradation of unemployment in the 1930s. We typified the kind of people for whom the Labour Party had been brought into existence, and our support for Labour was instinctive and fundamental.

I have always been a Labour voter, but never a Party member. My support has been at the ballot box, with occasional canvassing and leafleting activity, and some modest financial support. Throughout the nightmare years of Thatcher, I railed against the infighting of the Party that kept it from effectively challenging the Tories, and I was ecstatic when Tony Blair strode into Downing Street on a great wave of popular acclaim, carrying with him the hopes of millions like me

But then the progressive, insidious betrayals began - the gradual erosion of cabinet government, the cynical news management, the toadying to money and celebrity, the marginalisation of dissent, the attack on personal freedom under the law. It seemed only a matter of time until a great defining political issue would reveal the fault line in Blair's government, and it came - Iraq.

As we moved inexorably towards the war, I began to write to the newspapers, especially the Glasgow Herald, and in early March 0f 2003, closed a long letter by saying - 

"Iraq has become the defining political issue of our time, and the questions that will be asked of politicians (and all of us) is - where were you when there was still time to stop it?"

In May of 2003, after the resignation of Claire Short, I again wrote to the Herald -

"There are two kinds of dictator - those who seize power by force and those who erode parliamentary and cabinet processes gradually while maintaining the appearance of democracy. To Labour MPs I have this to say - get him (Blair) out before it is too late for the party and the nation." "Our own Scottish Parliament is now finely balanced enough to permit a debate and a vote on the threat to our egalitarian traditions posed by this man, who appears committed to the belief that the fundamental organising principle of the State is war."

Labour MPs and MSPs did neither. Gordon Brown, (the man who boasts of his 'moral compass') fully complicit in bankrolling the war, did nothing, either from political cowardice or because he endorsed it.
I have carried in my head over all the decades the rationale for supporting the Labour Party, or indeed any political party, inculcated into me in my early youth in Glasgow.

"Be loyal to a political party only to the degree that it shares your ideals. Policies reflect ideals - a party with ideals and no policies is a waking dream, but a party with policies and no ideals is an empty shell.

" Scotland made the Labour Party, and Scotland can unmake it if it betrays its ideals."

Both of these maxims have now come to haunt me in the dog days of Blair's government. Blair, Brown, their supporters, and the 'toom tabard', Jack McConnell, have betrayed my ideals, and, I believe, the ideals of millions of Labour Party supporters and members.  The majority of Labour MPs and MSPs are fully complicit in that betrayal. I reject them and all their works. The Labour Party I knew and loved is dead.

Only one politician of stature asks me to lift my head and look at a horizon that reveals a vibrant, nuclear-free Scotland, an equal partner in the European community of nations - only one politician and one party offers to restore my political idealism - Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party.

The SNP will have my vote on May the 3rd. I have never been a nationalist by instinct, but I believe that it now represents our last, best hope.

May the Labour Party rest in peace among its honourable dead, while Blair, Brown and their cohorts contemplate the charnel house they have made of Iraq, and their destruction of a once great political party.

So how are you voting and why? Join our online debate here

About Peter Curran
Born Dennistoun, Glasgow. Personnel Director - Scottish Brewers 1984-1988, 1988 to date - independent human resources consultant, specialising in negotiating skills.Author of The Ancient Order of Moridura (Nov. 2006) a scientific thriller novel. Married, with two children.Plays saxophones and clarinet and lately, a little banjo and guitar. Musical passion: jazz Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (CFCIPD)

Comments

[Paul Carline]

Thanks for a fine article, Peter - a fine balance of sensitivity, passion and integrity (just what we find lacking in most of our politicians).

I share your abhorrence of Blair and his toadies, but would only remark that it remains to be seen whether Alex Salmond and his cohorts are really willing and able to make the changes that are necessary. For me it's not just a matter of a few policy tweaks here and there, or even of independence (though I support it as a means of breaking the centralisation of power in the U.K. - a genuinely federal system would do the same), but of a radical shift of political culture.

For me, that shift needs to include the real acceptance of the fundamental democratic principle of popular sovereignty i.e. that all political power derives from the people, meaning that our 'representatives' are directly answerable to us and that on important issues we have the last word. I would also include the right of initiative and an optional referendum on all legislation passed by Holyrood (subject to a certain minimum number of signatures being collected - as in Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere).

We also need a proper Freedom of Information Act- with teeth. I do not accept that 'the state' has a right to preserve secrecy on its policies - especially on anything to do with national security, policing, foreign policy etc. Blair lied about Iraq. How many other things have he and others (the other Bliar - the Metropolitan Police Commissioner) lied about? Like the 'liquid explosives' plot, for instance - it ain't chemically possible to make liquid explosives on a plane!

Will Alex Salmond do anything to protect us against the state - or are we all to remain potential victims of 'shoot to kill', 'arrest and detention without warrant or trial' etc. legislation (based on lies about an 'extremist Muslim threat')?

These are much bigger and more important questions than how much we spend on schools and hospitals - or even whether Scotland gains independence. If we don't confront the 'Big Brother', 'War is Peace', 'Obedience is Freedom' state (part of the global 'New World Order') now, it will be too late.

Assuming that he wins on Thursday, we need to challenge Alex Salmond to say where he stands on all this. There shouldn't be a return to business as usual "under new management".

Paul

[Bill Banks]

Peter Im sorry that you feel so angry but surely you dont realy believe that the SNP are going to resolve the problems that you have with New Labour.Do you remember the analogy you used when an S-N negotiator one piece of the chocolate is better than none,well Peter we all have to compromise on our dreams and hopes in our lives regardless of the disappointment but turning away from new labour is not I feel the answer.Keir Hardies socialism was for his times but the world of politics had to move on and Tony Blair pushed socialism headlong into the 21st century(successfully)Yes I wanted more but who other than the labour party could create a better society than the one thatcher created and in your case not the narrow nationalistic policy of the SNP.