Talk of a progressive alliance with the SNP is laughable

Commenting on today’s report from the Fabian Society which suggested that Labour could enter into a so-called “progressive alliance with the SNP and Liberal Democrats to form the next government, Scottish Labour MSP Anas Sarwar said:

“Repeated talk of a ‘progressive alliance’ is laughable. The SNP is not a progressive party.

There have been no redistributive polices from the SNP in government. Under the SNP we have seen the worst reports on our NHS and education system since devolution. Just last month the SNP and the Tories joined forces to defeat a Labour proposal for a progressive tax system.

Under the SNP, Tory austerity is simply being passed on in Scotland, with the Nationalists planning a £327million cut to valued local services in 2017. That is not progressive – it is a budget a Tory Chancellor would be proud of.

There is also nothing progressive about seeking to break away from the rest of the UK – our biggest trading partner. That’s why there will be no support from Scottish Labour for a second independence referendum.

And, of course, the SNP doesn’t want an alliance with Labour – it hates the Labour Party and believes its destruction and the continuation of Tory government in Westminster is the route to independence.

People across the UK should spend less time focusing on Nicola Sturgeon’s grandstanding and look at what is actually happening in Scotland and the SNP’s record in government.”

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39 thoughts on “Talk of a progressive alliance with the SNP is laughable

  1. Could not agree more. How could UK Labour oppose the Tory budget with the SNP in Westminster when the SNP are happy to implement it in Scotland with “marginal” differences?

    1. It all comes down to timing, Scott. In the recent pre-Corbyn era, Labour was just as gung-ho for austerity as your Tory chums. And to curb those on benefits as well. Scottish Labour are somewhat to the right of Corbyn, don’t you think?
      Now it would appear that as Labour sinks into the electoral mire, Mr Corbyn’s days seem to be numbered. The question then will be, will Labour support a more expansionist economic policy, or revert back to Milibands tight fist?
      And what of Scottish Làbour? Your penny tax rise is already spent several times over? Will we see some fiscal honesty?

    2. Yep, we have see how labour have opposed the tory budget in Westminster time after time ,with nought.

      And now you have the fucking cheek to try and blame the SNP for the labour party not opposing the tory budgets.

      You must think everyone in Scotland is as thick as yersel.

      But you keep on erase licking to Anas I’m sure he will give you his vote.

    3. Except Labour aint opposing Tory policy in Westminster they are either supporting it or abstaining.

      Trident, privatisation, tuition fees, welfare cuts, austerity, Scottish budget cuts, warmongering House of Lords expansion, House of Commons reduction, Just a few ideals they both have in common.

      The SNP Government unhappily forced to implement cuts in Scotland imposed from Westminster by both the Blue and Red Tories going through the voting lobbies together. That’s the truth of it not your willful lying versions.

  2. Firstly, Labours irrational & damaging hatred of SNP isn’t reciprocated, The SNP have lots of ex-Labour members & supporters in their ranks who still have some affection for the party.

    On the main point, surely for any member of the Labour party the primary consideration should be to oust Theresa May & put Corbyn in No10, yet here you go again, putting petty political point scoring & self interest ahead of the needs of the party as a whole & of the millions of poor & vulnerable people who desperately need a Socialist UK Govt.

    1. The SNP work day an night to destroy Labour. There are even trolls that attack virtually every post on this site.

      Labour should stand on its manifesto. The SNP can back us or vote with the Tories.

      1. Ha, it labourites like yersel that work day an night to destroy labour. And its people who attack every one of your lying comments.

        As for labours manifesto, the voters showed labour exactly what they thought of that. That’s why labour is in third place at Holyrood and currently polling at 12% and dropping.

        You still don’t get it do you, Scotland doesn’t TRUST labour and with bloody good reason.

          1. Your lies, saying its the SNP’s fault that labour refuses to oppose the Tories in Westminster.

            As for which policies in the labour manifesto I disagree with, well they would be the same ones the voters in the rest of Scotland disagree with.

            If you don’t believe me just check the polls.

          2. Which manifesto are you referring to?
            I would presume its the 2015 Westminster one, as Scottish Labour is subordinate to London?
            so, its no tax increases, regional benefit caps etc etc

          3. I object to the fact that it was a pack of bare faced fucking lies from top to bottom.
            Labour making the same pledges they failed to deliver when they were in power for over 13 years.
            I couldn’t believe I read another claim to abolish the house of lords. Even while Labour continue to place “LIFE” peers within it.
            The uncosted spending pledges were another dead give away.
            Refusing to put an end to PFI PPP within the NHS. Pledging instead to cap their profits. utterly despicable.

      2. Why would a party that is in first place in Scotland want to back a party that is in third place and falling?

        Labour have nothing to offer Scotland, so what is there to back?

        On another note, it’s strange that all the typical SNPbad contributors on here have kept very quiet about AR Brown’s article – don’t you have anything to say about that?

  3. It’s highly doubtful if Labour will have enough MP’s to consider forming an understanding with other parties. They could be as low as 140, with none (zero) from Scotland.
    Why Mr Sardar is getting his knickers in a twist is a puzzle. Corbyn won’t ask for advice from Dugdale or Murray, that’s for sure.
    Scottish Labour is now less relevant or important, to a future Labour government than the SDLP or Sinn Fein, two previous partners for Labour.

    1. You forget that Corbyn is a leader that listens to the membership, and I don’t know a single member in Scotland who wants a deal with the SNP. That’s not because the SNP want independence, but because of the damage they are doing to public services.

      1. Corbyn is also a leader Scottish Labour didn’t vote for, but the rest of the UK party overwhelmingly did. Large parts of the party don’t listen to him, and most of the right wing PLP are desperate to get rid of him. As a bastion of right wing Labour, the Scottish party is now pretty out of step with the bulk of the UK party, isn’t it?

        Perhaps you are right that most of the remaining Scottish members would be against any progressive alliance (tho that begs the question of what would happen if the UK party endorsed it…?), but unless you can convince whole swathes of ordinary voters to come back to the fold how do you intend to recover from your current 12% in the polls?

        Even if your tendentious line about the SNP damaging public services were true, it isn’t leading to an increase in Labour support in Scotland; in fact you’re haemorrhaging votes to the Tories. 1% on income tax for the rich won’t solve your problem when your party as a whole is fully signed up to the Tory austerity agenda, or a pale imitation of it.

      2. Given the limited budget from Westminster, what do you propose to do differently to fix this alleged damage – apart from tax folk up to the hilt.

          1. So your/Labours answer is to tax folk to the hilt, some of whom can’t afford it, to compensate for a Westminster Government we didn’t vote for.

            No wonder Labour are in the state they are in with thinking like that.

          2. That would drive all the rich folk out of Scotland, would it not?

            Did you get your PhD in talking bollocks?

          3. Scott, how much will you need to increase taxes “for the richest” to ensure “we have the services we need”?
            This is the problem with Scottish Labour. The bulk of the people in employment have suffered a DETERIORATION in living standards over the last decade, and there are just not enough “richest” to make up for
            A. the cuts in Scotland’s share of expenditure.
            B. the spending commitments from Scottish Labour.
            Time for some fiscal honesty.

          4. Gavin,
            let’s face it, your are against progressive taxation. You don’t want to tax the richest 10% a penny more, even though that would allow us to invest in improving living standards and cutting inequality.

      3. Corbyn wont listen to anyone from Scottish Labours leadership (if that’s the correct term). Neither Dugdale nor Murray is a supporter of the elected Labour leader.
        I very much doubt that the SNP would give Labour the time of day in a proposed coalition, but it wont be any Scottish Labourite they are dealing with, because Scottish Labour will have zero MP’s at Westminster.
        You will have to stick with your Irish Nationalist support , just as you have always done.

          1. I have given you the truth.
            Neither Dugdale or Murray has given Corbyn any reason to trust them. That is fair is it not?
            On present polling evidence, Scottish labour will have no MP’s at Westminster. That is true, is it not?
            I would happily back Scottish Labour if it became a party I could trust to put Scottish interests first, not as “nationalists”, but as the national party you claim to be, but never seem to deliver —-
            A. on the constitution.
            B. on social issues.
            c. on growing our economy.
            You call me negative, but that is a reflection on how I perceive the performance of Scottish Labour over a period of decades. I could break it down further, but I doubt you are actually interested in the attitude of normal everyday people, who live in a small village, and have worked all their lives in traditional jobs.

          2. Gavin,
            you don’t get it. Labour puts helping the poorest first. That’s why the last Labour Government took 2 million people out of poverty.

            As for putting Scotland first, that’s why we oppose independence and argue for progressive taxation in Scotland.

            Scott

  4. At first I thought it was an article by Jim O’Neill or Scott Arthur you know what I mean, full of crap and labour suicide.

    But instead its been done by Anas Sarwar, yet another labour compulsive liar, perhaps he should have read the article by A.R. Brown. to get a true idea of what the actual labour support thinks about their party.

    It’s certainly not the shite he has written.

  5. Its certainly laughable from an SNP perspective. Why would anybody ally themselves with a party hell bent on its own destruction and oblivion?

  6. “Under the SNP, Tory austerity is simply being passed on in Scotland”

    This will be the same austerity cuts Labour across the UK support and had written into their 2015 election manifesto. Cuts the Scottish Government is FORCED to implement due to the ENFORCED cuts to the Scottish budget.

    Nobody does gibbering pish quite like a Labour apparatchik in denial.

  7. What is really laughable Anas is Scottish Labour’s inability to interact positively with the Fabian’s report, or to address any of the issues and stark choices it presents.

    In a week which saw Labour poll 12% (…just let that sink in for a moment: TWELVE per cent, in Scotland!), when this very site publishes an article from A.R. Brown pleading with your party to sort itself out, followed by over 130 comments with a procession of former Labour voters and supporters explaining why they abandoned your party, your “considered” response is to instantly dismiss any talk of a progressive alliance.

    Whilst loudly attacking the SNP, without a scintilla of evidence naturally, of not wanting an alliance and of hating the Labour party and wanting a Tory government, you continue down the very path that virtually guarantees Tory victory in the Westminster elections in 2020 and 2025. Such is your unreasoning hatred for the SNP and civic nationalism in Scotland, that you reject out of hand the eminently reasonable analysis in the Fabian’s paper, echoed by some more thoughtful Labour and progressive commentators online yesterday.

    If you or your party were serious about ensuring the Scottish Government could protect Scots from Tory austerity, why did you prevent the devolution of all the powers promised in the Vow? We didn’t get near Home Rule or Full Fiscal Authority, did we? Instead, you want the SNP to tax people twice whilst denying them control over all the economic levers which would allow them to run a deficit, borrow money and make a meaningful start in tackling the inequality and social deprivation you purport to hate so much.

    Rolling over and accepting brexit and opposing indyref2 (even if the majority want it and irrespective of the clear mandate for it given to the SG at the last Holyrood election) does not make Labour a progressive party. If you want to play progressive top-trumps with the SNP, it’s a game Labour’s Scottish branch in particular is bound to lose. Many SNP members and independence supporters wish the party was more radical and progressive, but not at the cost of harming the prospect of collapsing the pro-independence “big tent”.

    The polls show that Scots voters don’t buy your analysis of the SNP or their record in government. If they did you wouldn’t be heading for single figures in the polls. Time to put up or shut up Anas; don’t tell us why the SNP are bad, tell us why we should vote for you and your party, how you are going to ensure we stay in the Single Market and Customs Union, and what your detailed platform for delivering the maximum possible devolution, where the starting point is that all money raised in Scotland, stays in Scotland with only a subvention going to Westminster for UK wide expenditure. If you can’t (or more likely won’t) do so, you’re very much part of the problem outlined by the Fabians; too weak to win, too strong to die.

    1. “If you or your party were serious about ensuring the Scottish Government could protect Scots” – that’s the problem, they aren’t. Labour is a UK party and despite the “Scottish” label they like to associate with themselves, they care more about the UK than the people they are supposed to represent, who take second place.

  8. What lies Mike? I assume you don’t mind the SNP’s version of PFI?

    There is no SNP version of PFI. Another wilful bare faced lie.

  9. “DrScottThinks” – ‘As ever, you can’t back up your rhetoric when put on the spot’ , why would I have to back up any rhetoric when its you who have been caught out barefaced lying.

    I don’t think no-one hasn’t noticed your poor attempt to spin the direction of your comments away from your lies to crap about the labour manifesto.

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