Sunday 26 February 2017

Was Sadiq Khan asked by SLAB to accuse Indy supporters of bigotry?

You can imagine the sort of discussion  within the Scottish Labour Party (SLAB) prior to their Spring Conference.

We need to bring in a Star speaker someone guaranteed to get us headlines.



"Jeremy Corbyn?"


"Don'r be silly"


"Tony Blair?"


"Now you,r being stupid."


"Who os popular outside the party right now?"


"I know Sadiq Kahn " nor only is he popular he's a winner".


"Briliant now what shall we ask him to say"


"How about comparing Scottish Nationalism to racism and bigotry".


"Yes that is going to be a winner",


"Don'r be silly"

"Tony Blair?"

"Now you,r being stupid."

"Who os popular outside the party right now?"

"I know Sadiq Kahn " nor only is he popular he's a winner".

"Briliant now what shall we ask him to say"

"How about comparing Scottish Nationalism to racism and bigotry".

"Yes that is going to be a winner",


I am assuming because I can;t see how Sadiq Kahn could have come up with such a crass draft speech , without being asked by his hosts.


In his draft speech which he toned down a bit



“The world is an increasingly divided place – with Brexit, the election of President Trump and the rise of populist and narrow nationalist parties around the world,”
“Now is not the time to fuel that division or to seek separation or isolation. Now is not the time to play on people’s fears or to pit one part of our country – or one section of our society – against another.”

Perhaps Mr Kahn should look at the response from Emglish Blogger Another Angry Voice. (AAV).


The essence of what Sadiq Khan is saying is that in order to not be a nasty divisive racist, Scottish people should campaign alongside Britain First, UKIP and the National Front in opposing Scottish independence from Westminster rule!
This kind of idiotic and deeply insulting nonsense is clearly the product of a Labour Party that absolutely refuses to accept that they've made some absolutely catastrophic strategic errors in Scotland
It's the attitude of an astoundingly arrogant political party who pin the blame for their electoral hammerings on the stupidity of the Scottish electorate rather than their own obvious failings, and imagine that Scottish voters will eventually come around and see sense if enough Labour bigwigs come up from London to hector them about how wanting to put an end to London rule makes people the kind of bigots and racists who are famed for their opposition to Scottish independence.
As long as out-of-touch Labour politicians continue treating the Scottish electorate as if they're just too stupid to appreciate how great the Labour Party actually is, and using this kind of smeary, bizarrely counter-factual and ridiculously condescending "Scottish nationalism bad, British nationalism good" propaganda, the Labour Party in Scotland is certain to continue its hasty decline towards total political irrelevance.

For some reason the Labour leaning blog Left Foot Fowaed  has ben silent on the issue.


Could it be that even they can see that Khan draft speech part of which he released before the conference would not go down well with those who have left Labour in Scotland for the Independence movement?


I suppose there may well be some in Wales as well in Scotland  who will be delighted with what looks like a spectacular own goa,l which has gained nearly all the headliners of a SLAB conference which was intended to buoy them up before  May's local government elections , where they are expected to lose seats and may even become third.


But as it is I find it sad that a bright and popular Labour Leader (and they don't have many) could allow himself to make such an error in judgement.


Labour in Scotland may be finished and maybe its time they realised it and rather than see Scotland being under a right wing Tory government for decades it is time to show England and Wales that there is a progressive alternative to the bigotry that Mr Kahn was referring to, coming out of the sort of Independent Scotland the SNP and others envisage.

2 comments:

East Neuker said...

Here here. I wholly agree, and pray that enough of my fellow Scots will have the courage and foresight to carry us to independence.

Anonymous said...

Yes, very disappointed with Sadiq Khan's comments, but not surprised - this is standard 'Labour speak' for those they label as nationalists. However, they fail to recognise the most virulent British nationalism that their party supports on a daily basis.

What was most interesting about the Labour conference was how it clearly demonstrated the decline of the party. Very little of substance was offered by way of policies to challenge the Tory austerity cuts from Westminster.

The Unionist and Labour Party in Scotland today are a 'busted flush'.