Comrades, I have bad news. The electorate think Scottish Labour is out of touch and that the party arrogantly believes it is special and somehow morally superior to other political parties.
You know why? Because we are out of touch and arrogantly believe we are special and somehow morally superior to other political parties.
I worked on the campaigns in 2007, 2011, 2016 and 2021. After each of those four elections I heard elected members, candidates, staff or activists utter phrases like “they will come back to us”, “they don’t know that they’ve done”, “they don’t understand”, “just give them time.” If that isn’t arrogant and presumptive then I don’t know what is.
At the same time, we, and I am as guilty of this as anyone, we reel off broken SNP promises, things they haven’t achieved, targets they have missed, what we see as dirty tricks or dishonest campaigning and then look on in disbelief as Scottish Labour lose yet another election. We think we are better than, purer than, above, beyond, the other parties or in a different realm altogether. It’s someone else’s fault, if only they would understand.
Well, I have more news. We are not better than any other party, we are not purer, we are not in some kind of elevated position. We are in the same scrap for votes as they are. We want to win so we have the opportunity to put our values in to practice and help people. That’s politics.
No more was this obvious than during the most recent election. During the campaign, Scottish Labour introduced a new slogan, “people deserve a better government and better opposition.” Now, it was obvious to absolutely anyone that Scottish Labour were not going to sweep to power, with Anas Sarwar installed as First Minister after 7 May. And yet the response to bluntly stating this fact was not exactly universal acclaim. “We are giving up on winning”, “We shouldn’t concede”, “What’s the point if you aren’t in it to win.” I heard all of these things and more.
So why did this slogan cause such grumping? Because it pierced the bubble of our self-delusion and said what the voters themselves already knew. We weren’t going to win but we would try and improve the lives of people in Scotland no matter the result.
We had no divine right to anyone’s vote, we were going to fight for them all, we knew we had fallen far and had a long way to come back. I was told this on the phones and on the doors when people heard that slogan. “At least you understand”, “You know how far you have to go” and, my favourite, “I might listen to what you have to say.” Hardly a ringing endorsement, but perhaps a start.
We need to build on that when the council elections roll round again next year, always remind ourselves that we don’t have the automatic right to any vote but neither should any vote seem out of reach. Honesty, positivity and aspiration should be at the heart of everything we say.
No grumping, no complaining, no bemoaning lies or dirty tricks by our opponents. Show voters we are on their side, will stick with them, we will help them no matter the result. That we want to earn their votes and demonstrate that we deserve their votes through our words and actions in and out of power.
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