A Labour-SNP coalition in 2011?

I’m not sure if this is just a case of The Scotsman or the Labour Party bring mischievous. The paper claims that.

A source close to Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray told The Scotsman a tentative approach has been made to one of his aides over whether he would be willing to strike a deal in a "post-Alex Salmond era".

I always take the term “a source” or a “senior party figure” with a pinch of salt, as I believe that this is usually cover for a correspondents extrapolation of an interview, or even merely speculation.

Anyway the SNP have pointed to recent opinion poles which show they are closing the gap on Labour, and that next years Holyrood elections have it all to play for.

However the article does point out to a potential dilemma in Scotland, because it is highly unlikely that either Party will have an overall majority, and this leads to some interesting scenarios

• The largest Party could as SNP have done quite successfully rule alone on a vote by vote situation where only a vote of no confidence could bring them down.
• They could form a coalition with the Greens, Independents or socialist parties but this would be depending on the numbers.
• They could form a coalition with the Lib-Dems, but could Labour (or the SNP) enter coalition with a Party which at the same time is in hock to the Tories in Westminster I doubt it.
• I think we can leave out a coalition between either Party and the Tories.

So that leaves:

• A coalition between Labour and the SNP. However this would depend on Labour being the largest Party because there is no way at the moment that Labour would be junior partners taking orders from Alex Salmond or any leader of another party.

 Because of the arithmetic of the Holyrood elections however I suspect there may be some informal discussion between Parties on the possible outcome of the next election to the Scottish parliament, and I think the SNP should make it clear that if Labour are not prepared to be junior partners in a coalition (or equal partners ) with a SNP leader then they would not be junior partners to Labour.

Labour often behaves like a boy who threatens to take the ball away if he’s not allowed to have a glamorous role in a game of football. They need reminding its not their ball but the people of Scotlands

How many Welsh Labour Cabinet members have there been?

I ask this question because Syniadau reports that Diane Abbot has carried her Labour leadership campaign to Scotland and will spend over a week there.


She is reported as saying.

“I have not spent a week and a half in Wales. I genuinely think the Scottish Labour party has always had a very fundamental role in British Labour politics. In a way the Scottish Labour movement is the keeper of the flame when it comes to socialism. I think whoever wins (in Scotland) deserves to win overall.”

Interesting! Does this mean that Wales is of no importance to Abbot, and to Labour as a whole apart for supplying lobby fodder for Labour machine?

Well Yes.

In every election since 1923 .The largest number of MPs from Wales were from the Labour Party, and for most of the period after it provided the vast majority of Welsh MPs. Even in 1931 when Labour were almost wiped out in the rest of Britain when Ramsey McDonald formed the National Government., of the 52 reaming seats 15 were from Wales.

And yet what has been the “Welsh” influence on Labour?

Well you can point to Aneurin Bevan, and without a doubt his experience of the South Wales Miners Federation welfare programme influenced his thinking on the National Health Service and Bevan's name is still invoked by Labour MPs (who then betray his legacy) throughout the UK; But how many  other Welsh MP’s have been placed in a position of power in a Labour Cabinet?

Precious few.

If we were to exclude the Secretary of State for Wales.Very few members of Labour Cabinets were from Wales and if we were to  further exclude those who were born outside Wales then you would be hard pressed indeed to find them.

Both James Callaghan and Michael Foot only represented Welsh constituencies as a means to enter Parliament and abandoned them to retire to their farm in East Sussex (Callaghan) and house in Hamstead (London).

I’ve no idea what Peter Hain intends to when he ceases to represent Neath but I suspect he to will leave the area..

Compare this with Scotland and the members from that country who have found places in Labour Cabinets over the years, and of course in the last one Both Prime Minister and Chancellor were Scots who represented Scottish Constituencies amongst others who were in prominent positions.

So I can understand Abbots reluctance to canvass for votes in Wales because in her  mind (and to the rest of the Labour party). Wales is irrelevant.

I remember when I first started having an interest in Politics. The saying

“They’d vote for a Donkey if it was Labour”.

Or the rumour that a Welsh Labour MP had only spoken once in a Commons debate and that was to call for the Windows to be opened because of the heat.

My view over the years has changed somewhat, I believe we have sent some very capable Labour members to Westminster but they have been met discrimination and have been affected by a form of “Cultural Cringe”. Where they believed that someone who went to Oxbidge had had a refined accent were somehow more able than them and deferred to them.

Of course there will be Welsh MP’s elected to the “Shadow Cabinet” in the future as there nearly always have been but when it comes to the real job what happens?

They are dropped PDQ.

Some of the Labour Leadership contenders have indicated that they would prefer to appoint members which on past experience will mean fewer Welsh members. After 70 years perhaps it’s time for Labour Party members in Wales to stop seeking to be “a big fish in a small pond” and look to using their talents to serve Wales and not the Part machine that only grids them up.