As Sir Keir Starmer bores us all to death in ascending the\nleaden throne which is the leadership of the Labour Party, one constant\ncriticism is that not one of the eight remaining candidates for Leader or\nDeputy have offered a valid critique of why Jeremy Corbyn\u2019s leadership was such\na disaster. This, we are assured, is the time to look back and consider what\nwent well and what didn\u2019t. My regular reader will not be shocked, stunned nor\namazed to learn that I have some views but why should I intrude on private\ngrief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it occurs to me that if the aftermath of a disastrous\ndefeat is a good time to reflect on the campaign, then the aftermath of a very\nsuccessful campaign should be an even better time for reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I recall a poll during the 1st<\/sup> Indyref which\nbasically suggested that if YES was successful then Scotland would elect a\nLabour Government at the first election to an Independent Scotland but if NO\nwas to win then the SNP would be the preference to defend Scotland. While I\nthought this was to say the least, counter-intuitive it did have the virtue of\nbeing correct. One of the tragedies of 2014 was that we did not undertake a\nreal assessment of why we failed to persuade and what parts of our programme\nwere vote winners or losers. In the pain of the result and then the euphoria of\nthe 2015 election I can understand why that opportunity was lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2019 however is another matter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had by any standards a very good night. But why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, I would suggest is when we should be utilising Angus\nRobertson and his team to do some real in-depth analysis of what happened, why\nit happened and as a consequence of understanding these, how do we translate\nthat into a YES vote in indyref2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s an old clich\u00e9 that failing to prepare is the same as\npreparing to fail. We must ensure that we prepare and a valid part of that is\nunderstanding what motivates our supporters. An equally valid part is\nunderstanding what motivates those who are not yet our supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We won roughly 45% of the vote in 2019 and because of the\nvagaries of the ridiculous 1st<\/sup> past the post system took 47 or 48\nseats depending on how you count the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath result. That\u2019s\nnot a lot of movement from 2014 but a big move from 2017\u2019s election when we\ntook roughly 37%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are lots of theories as to why but I would suggest\nthat what we need is not a basket of theories but some serious research. How\nmany of the 45% want Independence? More importantly perhaps is to ask how many\nof the 55% who voted for another party want Independence? And how do we bring\nthem to voting for it? How many Labour, Tory and Libdem voters want\nIndependence? Why, if they want Independence do the vote for Unionist parties?\nFor that matter, how many of our voters in 2019 may not vote for independence?\nHow do we reconcile those who want Independence but not to be in the EU? Why\ndid our vote increase from 2017?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a recent report Lord Ashcroft notes \u201cBut the feeling that the Labour Party was no longer for them went beyond Brexit and the Corbyn leadership. While it had once been true that \u201cthey knew us, because they were part of us,\u201d Labour today seemed to be mostly for students, the unemployed, and middle-class radicals. It seemed not to understand ordinary working people, to disdain what they considered mainstream views and to disapprove of success. The \u201cpie in the sky\u201d manifesto of 2019 completed the picture of a party that had separated itself from the reality of their lives.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord Ashcroft Polls: Diagnosis of Defeat<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n To ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes made by Labour over many years of taking their voters for granted, we must always be willing to do the hard rigorous analysis of what voters want from us, like about us and why they are increasingly willing to support Independence even when they do not necessarily believe it will make them personally better off. We must also ask why not and be willing to look at how we can continue to move people to our side. Are we working hard enough to attract voters outside the Central Belt? Do we offer a vision which is attractive to e.g. the Sunday Post reader in the Highlands and Borders who is sceptical of the EU? Is it by accident that 8 of the 11 unionist MPs are from these areas? Are we seen as too much of a one woman, one issue Party and Government? <\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know the answers but I do know someone who can try\nto find them. Now, I am realistic enough to know that any such detailed\nanalysis will not be shared with all and sundry but I do expect the bones to be\nshared with our candidates and Cas. I also expect to see the results appear in\nthe new campaign materials Nicola has promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like a good football manager strengthening the team when\nyou are at the top, we need to ensure that the up and coming stars get the\nchance to show their worth. It must have been a real sickener for the unionist\nmedia to have timed their revelation of Derek McKay\u2019s disgraceful behaviour for\nbudget day only to see Kate Forbes turn in such a bravura performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now is the time to ask the hard questions. When, for\nexample RBS announce that they would move their HQ from Edinburgh to London in\nthe event of Independence do we not have a better response than just to slag\nthem off? We can do things to shift opinions from Government, rather than\nLabour\u2019s position of facing another decade at least in opposition. Angus has\nserved the Party and the cause well over the years in many rolls but his\ngreatest contribution could well be to undertake the necessary research into\nwhat we do well in our offering to the people of Scotland. And what we need to\nimprove! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Sir Keir Starmer bores us all to death in ascending the leaden throne which is the leadership of the Labour Party, one constant criticism is that not one of the eight remaining candidates for Leader or Deputy have offered a valid critique of why Jeremy Corbyn\u2019s leadership was such a disaster. This, we are assured, is the time to look back and consider what went well and what didn\u2019t. My regular reader will not be shocked, stunned nor amazed to learn that I have some views but why should I intrude on private grief. But it occurs to me that if the aftermath ofRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2708,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions\/2708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}