The elections in Scotland produced not only a total shambles as far as the voting system was concerned but also a few surprises in the results themselves. As expected Labour took a hammering in both the elections for the Scottish Parliament losing four seats and their 50 year power base in Scotland by one seat to the Scottish National Party. They also took a hammering in the local elections where they lost overall control of 8 councils and now have 348 councillors to the 363 of the SNP. The Lib Dems and Tories each lost one seat and the Greens retained two Parliamentary seats where they expected to win nine and the Independents held on to one seat with the popular Margo McDonald in Edinburgh.
The new system of transferable votes for the constituency elections placed alongside the regional candidates on the same ballot paper was a recipe for confusion and disaster for voters and the BBC claim that 140,000 ballot papers were spoiled – a total disgrace for any country never mind a highly developed one such as Scotland. There is talk of legal challenges and judicial enquiries by all sides.
Both the tiny socialist parties of the SSP and Solidarity were wiped out with the SSP polling only 13,256 compared to the 31,066 for Solidarity. Solidarity leader and the best known socialist in Scotland, Tommy Sheridan, was narrowly defeated in his home town of Glasgow. Solidarity did gain a solitary seat in the Graigton ward of Glasgow thus giving Solidarity a chance to boast in their newsletter that they are now the largest left party in Scotland! The Socialist vote was down by 100,000 votes in Scotland leaving both the SSP and Solidarity looking around in desperation for reasons at their spectacular fall in support. This is the inevitable legacy of the bitter squabbling and the splits of last summer as working class people turned away from the these parties in the same way as many voters turned away from Labour in Scotland.
In the aftermath of the defeats, Tommy Sheridan has vowed to carry on and build Solidarity into a credible left opposition in Scotland. Colin Fox, leader of the SSP, speaking at the visually down beat May Day rally in Edinburgh two days after the election debacle continued his usual rants against New Labour again claiming that the SSP was the only real alternative to New Labour. Sadly no real socialist perspective or way forward for the SSP was included in his rhetoric. Only the young rock band managed to cheer the 300 or so attending the rally, the poorest attendance for many years.
Colin's first lieutenant, Alan M'Coombes was more circumspect in his analysis of the wipe-out of the SSP. Writing candidly in the ‘Voice‘, the newspaper of the SSP, McCoombes highlighted the spectacle of the Sheridan court action against the ‘News of the World' and the subsequent fall out between Sheridan and the leadership of the SSP leading to the split and the formation of a near identical party, Solidarity, as the main reason why voters turned away from both parties of the left. His analysis was long in the criticism of Sheridan, justifying the SSP case against Sheridan but short in looking at his own manifesto and why it did not appeal to former supporters as the "real alternative to Labour" .
Socialist Appeal has consistently reminded the leadership of the SSP, who claim to be Marxists, that the SSP hopes of building an alternative parliamentary party to Labour along with their left reformist programme, which included a vague commitment to a Scottish Socialist Republic, would fail and end in splits and recrimination. This is the lessons of history which the SSP, and now Solidarity, despite their one gain have failed to recognise. They are now so far down the road of left reformism that they will continue to make the same mistakes and as such will probably fade into nothing but a rump of feuding sectarians both pointing the finger at each other and New Labour for their demise.
In truth there is no shortcut to a socialist Scotland by the methods or programme of the SSP and Solidarity. There is also no way forward for socialism in support for those sectarian parities and their deeply flawed aims of independence first, socialism second. The damage to socialism in Scotland by the SSP and Solidarity will not be repaired overnight although the supporters of Socialist Appeal will continue to raise the Marxist banner in Scotland by patiently explaining the mistakes of the SSP and Solidarity to those who once put their faith in them and are have now sadly been let down. The only way forward for the left in Scotland is to support the urgent need to build socialist programmes within the Labour and trade union movement. Only the unity of all workers in Britain through their traditional organisations of the trade unions and a revitalised Labour Party armed with socialist policies can a better society be built.
