Like so many on the left in Scotland, Gerry Hassan (
23 March) looks back to the golden era of social democracy after 1945. Absent from his article is any analysis of how and why this era came to an end. In particular, the role of the Scottish left in its end is ignored.
This was especially true of Gordon Brown, the most important figure in the Scottish left in the last third of the 20th century. Brown concluded that the social democratic consensus had no future. Socialism, a different ideology, was the way forward. This was explained in detail in the
Red Paper on Scotland edited by Brown in 1975. Among the contributors were Robin Cook, Jim Sillars, Tom Nairn and Vince Cable – then a Labour councillor in Glasgow.
In the SNP, Alex Salmond and the '79 Group were singing from the same hymn sheet. Jimmy Reid echoed this with his involvement in the May Day Manifesto in 1981. This amounted to a near consensus in the Scottish left to ditch the post-war consensus. While these individuals can be criticised for a utopian attachment to socialism, it is worth recalling why they gave up on the political settlement which Gerry Hassan views so fondly.
At the time, it was seen widely as failing to bring prosperity to a huge swathe of the population. At the heart of this critique was the question of economic growth. In comparison to much of Western Europe, the UK was a laggard. From the late 1950s on, Scotland appeared to be faltering even in comparison to England. The staples of heavy industry were struggling. Shipbuilding, after a post-war 'Indian summer', was unable to compete with Sweden, Japan and Germany. That the last two had been defeated so recently added to the sense of resentment. Ironically, much of the committed social democratic left saw joining the EU, then known as the Common Market, as the road to salvation. In Scotland, this grouping was weak as water. Its only flag bearer was John P McIntosh.
Labour moved left and the Tories moved right. The failure of the left to win the electoral argument is well known. The Tories won a resounding victory in 1983, aided by the defection of much of the social democratic left from the Labour Party in England. (In Scotland, this was of marginal importance.) Social Democracy had been crushed by the comparative extremes on either side.
This proved to be the death of British social democracy. Yet, it need not have been. Scotland's erstwhile socialists learned the wrong lesson from the electoral fiasco. They concluded that Margaret Thatcher was right, there was no alternative. Instead of having faith in social democracy, the left moved across the centre and embraced the right's view of the economy. Again, Gordon Brown is the key figure. His genuine admiration for the dynamism of US society led to a fateful embrace of Alan Greenspan – more than any other individual, the architect of the 2008 economic collapse. Brown was not alone. John Reid ended at the same destination from the Communist Party and Alistair Darling made a similar journey.
The end result of this, though rarely acknowledged by Scotland's many left supporting commentators, has been the neutralisation of the left as a credible economic alternative. From the left, only Tommy Sheridan has shown any capacity to move voters in the last 40 years and his brief career ended in self-destruction.
A few marginal figures have appeared to take advantage of the internet. At the time of the 2014 referendum, they appeared to have a future. Seven years on, that is clearly not so. The prospects for a revival of the left look bleak, not least due to an unwillingness to face up to its own past failings and errors.
John Scott
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