"IAIN Gray, the frontrunner in the Scottish Labour leadership race, raised the prospect of a groundbreaking pact with the Conservatives yesterday as a way of taking on the Nationalists in the Scottish Parliament."
His justification? Simply, that the Labour Party should be prepared to undertake that kind of cross-party approach if it was to use the parliament of minorities to its advantage.
How very pragmatic of him. Sensible too - after all, since each party is in a minority, the only way to ever win votes in Parliament is to build alliances on an issue by issue basis. For that reason, I can only assume that it was a completely different Iain Gray who stood up in Parliament last February to deride Conservative support for the SNP budget as "a tartan Tory tango".
Still, there's more rejoicing in heaven etc etc. On the bright side, perhaps we've now heard the last of Labour's dead-from-the-neck-up rhetoric about the SNP somehow being in an unholy alliance with the Conservatives. After all, having so publicly outed himself as a raving consensualist, Mr Gray will look mighty foolish if he resorts to that sort of silly jibe in future...
11 comments:
(Oops, I'll try that again...)
What a sensible post, Richard.
In my "AM2" guise over at the Scotsman, I tried to put the same argument to the CyberNats - but to no avail. They just hit the "Lieboretory rat" type rhetoric button.
What do you make of their comments, incidentally?
Well, thank you for your kind words.
'In my "AM2" guise over at the Scotsman, I tried to put the same argument to the CyberNats - but to no avail. They just hit the "Lieboretory rat" type rhetoric button."
I guess the urge to kick Labour is pretty strong, even beyond the ranks of supposed SNP cyber activists. That said, debate tends to work much better when you tackle the argument rather than the person making it. Use of Ad Hominem is seldom an attractive trait in anyone.
'What do you make of their comments, incidentally?'
I think I've made my views on the subject quite clear in my post. If anyone disagrees, 'CyberNat' or otherwise (there must be a snappy term for their unionist equivalents somewhere), then they're more than welcome to swing by for a discussion...
Incidentally, you have the distinction of being the first person to get a Union Jack on this blog. Most ingenious!
In an independent country various political parties would and could form alliances to push through common agendas where no single party has an overall majority.
But Scotland isn't an independent country and any thoughts that Iain Gray might have about forming a common cause with the other dependence parties against the nationalist enemy are sunk from the word go because of that.
The battle in England is Tory versus Labour with the Lib-Dems as the coat-holders and any inter-party cooperation in Scotland will simply not be allowed in case it has an impact on English voters, especially as the General Election grows ever closer.
Another problem for the dependence parties in Scotland is that any policy agreed between the Tories, Labour in Lib-Dems in Scotland must also be an agreed policy between the Tories, Labour and Lib-Dems in England. This reduces the chances of cooperation by a large factor.
A Tory/Labour alliance in Scotland would be manna from heaven for the SNP but it will never happen.
Well, I'm certainly not going to remove the British Flag from the logo, but as I've stated an intention to "reclaim" Scottish emblems from the nationalist movement, here's a montage which better signifies my "Scotland in Britain in Europe" ideal.
You clearly have far too much time on your hands, my friend...
BTW, only the Lord Lyon, or the First Minister, is allowed to give permission for the Lion Rampant to be displayed. Have you sought the permission of either to depict it in such a way in cyberspace?
I think we should be told :-)
I think you’ll find that the rules relate to flags, not electrons – and that even if they didn’t, my little non-commercial transgression wouldn’t exactly be at the head of the queue!
Hmm, I don't know. With your cavalier misappropriation of such images, it seems to me like you're displaying a shameful lack of respect for the Scotland Act, Her Majesty and the rightful constitutional arrangements of the United Kingdom.
Bloody seperatists...
Tu quoque, Richard? ;-)
Not a bit of it. Without the golden background, a Rampant Lion is in itself perfectly acceptable.
They'll have you locked in the Tower yet for your disrespectful insouciance. Or at least deprived of an invitation to the Garden Party ;-)
Quick, warn your pals! ;-)
Post a Comment