Lib Dems are the Tory stooges in Scotland
by Ken Ferguson - 12/05/2010
First lets dispose of the forest of fig leaves sprouting around the Tory led coalition now in power at Westminster.
The tale being furiously spun that this is a meeting of minds of principled men to secure a stable government in the national interest is pure fiction worthy of JK Rowling.
This is, in all key aspects, a Tory government committed to implementing the neo liberal guts of the Tory programme of cuts and war with the supposedly “progressive” Lib Dems as loyal junior partners.
Also melting like an ice cream in a heat wave is the supposed Lib Dem opposition to Trident which stays firmly on the coalition's agenda.
Blown away is all that Clegg stardust revealing another power hungry politician selling his principles, in the case, cheaply.
In Scotland the Tories have deployed the old imperial trick of appointing a local front man to run the show with the hapless Danny Alexander taking the largely ceremonial post Of Scottish Secretary charged with defending brutal cuts to a public who have just overwhelmingly rejected them.
The £6 billion cuts will throw a harsh spotlight on Labour whose election pitch was fear of the Tories and now see the Tories in power.
Will the much hyped Scottish Labour triumph be translated into serious action to fight the cuts or confined to making impassioned speeches?
This is a key moment in Scottish politics.
The depth and savagery of the cuts now in train and to follow will not only challenge the new coalition but potentially the entire future of the UK,
By crunching on the Cameron suicide capsule the Lib Dems not only ensure they share the blame of public anger at cuts but face voters in next year’s Scottish elections as chums of the detested Tories.
The SNP—supposedly humiliated on May 6th—now lead an administration on a collision course with a government composed of the parties which came third and fourth in the Scottish popular vote implementing policies rejected overwhelmingly by voters.
In many ways they face the same challenge as their bitter opponents in New Labour.
Either they can mount a verbal campaign against cuts but then implement them as the Tories cut the cash or they can reach out to the forces opposed to the cuts and use the legitimacy of the Scottish Parliament to spearhead a mass campaign against them.
In either event the question of independence is certain to once again to move centre stage but the case for it will be immeasurably stronger if it is put in the context of meeting the demand of voters for an alternative to cuts.
This will open the way to linking the Scots demand for social and economic policies radically different from Westminster to the need for independence to deliver them.
The left needs to ensure that any illusions that the attacks can be halted in the House of Commons are unmasked and the ground laid for a campaign of action in workplaces and communities as well as councils and parliaments.
After four weeks of media frenzy, Clegg mania and brave talk about a “new” politics voters are now faced with a coalition of parties with an economic policy which puts bankers and money markets before the interests of those who elected them.
It has the potential to be a very bumpy ride.