The post-mortems have started. The Labour party got several things badly wrong, and much of what I’m reading (such as this or that) repeats the mistakes: that the party needs to promote a vision, that it needs to revise its ‘offer’, that it’s got to have a strong leader, that it needs to shift to the centre ground (or to move further to the right), or that it needs to construct a different narrative. All appealling, all missing the point. What has happened in Scotland is something else. Two years of passionate political debate have introduced Scottish voters to a new form of civic nationalism, based on discussion, participation, dialogue and sharing views. That’s what people saw and liked about Nicola Sturgeon – not a ‘natural’, but the product of a different kind of politics. Labour has to learn to engage with its public, to build a programme on what people say to it, to close the democratic deficit. It has to listen, not to lead.
I agree, it is sad to see the demise of Labour across the UK. The referendum did indeed waken many sleeping Scots. The next 5 years are going to be tough for the poorest in society and that fills me with dread. How much of our welfare state will survive and how much sold to big corporations? England has dug it’s own grave.