Scotland’s decades-long left-wing support has given rise to the idea of uniquely progressive politics in the UK’s northernmost nation. The Conservative Party have not won a majority of seats in Scotland since 1955, the emerging Scottish National Party dominance since the 2000s, and a red wave of Labour victories in last year’s election: all point to a left-wing standard.
This myth has been spectacularly punctured in recent weeks. Anti-migration protests around the country, particularly outside the Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk, have seen right-wing populism balloon. Immigration has polled among the top concerns for Scottish people. Perth and Aberdeenshire have also seen protests. Save Our Future & Our Kids Futures, the group organising the Falkirk demonstrations, posted on social media that “this is not about hate, racism or division.” That didn’t stop a banner reading “kill ‘em all” from being seen at one event.
A rightwards lurch should seem at odds with Scotland’s prevailing progressive wind. But this assumption belies the true nature of Scottish politics: a political character defined not by Leftism, but by proletarian disgruntlement at perceived injustice.
When Scotland didn’t vote Conservative, they were rejecting the traditional party of capital. Through the formation of an SNP government in 2007, and dominance in Westminster from 2015, Scotland excoriated a Westminster establishment seen as neglectful of Scotland’s needs. The Labour victory in Scotland last year signalled a rejection of the SNP’s scandal-laden fecklessness.
Moreover, polling reveals that Scots are more concerned with economic unfairness than their English counterparts. All this is not to say that Scotland is a working-class monolith, or that Scots are poorer (per capita data suggests the opposite). But it seems that Scottish opinion relies deeply on a rebellion against injustice at the top.
The emerging movement against migration is not an aberration from, but a continuation of, this trend. Beyond the bigotry which mingles in the migration debate lies outrage at perceived unfairness in the immigration system, analogous to anger at traditional progressive turf such as economic and social inequality. There is a sense–an erroneous one–of jumping the queue, of foreign-born individuals gaining from a system neglecting natives. The protests in Falkirk are focused on “safety, justice, and standing up for the people of Falkirk,” Save Our Future maintain.
Falkirk is my father’s hometown. He used to go to the Cladhan Hotel on nights out. He describes the huge industry in the town in the 1970s and 1980s; Imperial Chemical Industries provided swathes of jobs for Falkirk and Grangemouth, as did Grangemouth’s oil refinery; both offered sought-after apprenticeships providing what were seen as jobs for life. These sites have now shut down–the refinery this April.
The town is bleak. Falkirk’s economic inactivity rate is 24.8 per cent, above the UK-wide figure of 21.6 per cent. Meanwhile, NHS Scotland’s waiting lists have grown, with 38,702 people having waited for a year or longer, while Scottish education standards are also falling. Is that fair?
These problems are not the fault of migration. We have a moral and legal obligation to support those claiming asylum, and foreign-born individuals bring great value to Britain (most notably, the roughly 19% of NHS workers who report a foreign nationality). They are instead the result of political failure – for example, the SNP’s curriculum reforms, which have worsened learning outcomes, particularly for poorer students. But Scotland’s rightward shift is caused by perception: in a video essay on debates around transgender people, Abigail Thorn presents claims that opposition to transgender rights stems from the similarities between concern over where those rights could lead and existing injustices facing people. Something similar is infecting the immigration debate.
Struggling to pay your rent? Asylum seekers are given free accommodation. Concerned about your children’s future, given their inadequate education? One asylum seeker in the Cladhan Hotel has been convicted of raping a 15-year-old. (That one person is not representative of all is elided in the right’s logic.) Feel that your community is in decline? As Trevor Phillips argued, your local hotel, where you may have spent major life events, is now unavailable.
Immigration has been seen to be unjust, while other forces have damaged lives. Add to that political mismanagement of the asylum system, evidenced by huge backlogs causing costs to balloon, and the Left’s failures in office (Labour’s winter fuel payments fiasco, for example), which have undermined Labour and the SNP’s arguments for progressivism’s benefits and leaving only anti-migrant sentiment. People have been pushed away from progressivism in search of justice, pushed right in search of righteousness.
Tony Benn said that there are two flames burning in the human heart: the flame of anger at injustice, and the flame of hope for a better world. The Scottish flame of anger at injustice is evolving, no longer against Westminster or the capital, but foreigners. Scotland was once renowned for its love of the nation. To be sure, it still is–but who can be part of that nation is anyone’s guess.
“grangemouth” by _gee_ is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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Is Scotland Lurching to the Right?
Scotland’s decades-long left-wing support has given rise to the idea of uniquely progressive politics in the UK’s northernmost nation. The Conservative Party have not won a majority of seats in Scotland since 1955, the emerging Scottish National Party dominance since the 2000s, and a red wave of Labour victories in last year’s election: all point to a left-wing standard.
This myth has been spectacularly punctured in recent weeks. Anti-migration protests around the country, particularly outside the Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk, have seen right-wing populism balloon. Immigration has polled among the top concerns for Scottish people. Perth and Aberdeenshire have also seen protests. Save Our Future & Our Kids Futures, the group organising the Falkirk demonstrations, posted on social media that “this is not about hate, racism or division.” That didn’t stop a banner reading “kill ‘em all” from being seen at one event.
A rightwards lurch should seem at odds with Scotland’s prevailing progressive wind. But this assumption belies the true nature of Scottish politics: a political character defined not by Leftism, but by proletarian disgruntlement at perceived injustice.
When Scotland didn’t vote Conservative, they were rejecting the traditional party of capital. Through the formation of an SNP government in 2007, and dominance in Westminster from 2015, Scotland excoriated a Westminster establishment seen as neglectful of Scotland’s needs. The Labour victory in Scotland last year signalled a rejection of the SNP’s scandal-laden fecklessness.
Moreover, polling reveals that Scots are more concerned with economic unfairness than their English counterparts. All this is not to say that Scotland is a working-class monolith, or that Scots are poorer (per capita data suggests the opposite). But it seems that Scottish opinion relies deeply on a rebellion against injustice at the top.
The emerging movement against migration is not an aberration from, but a continuation of, this trend. Beyond the bigotry which mingles in the migration debate lies outrage at perceived unfairness in the immigration system, analogous to anger at traditional progressive turf such as economic and social inequality. There is a sense–an erroneous one–of jumping the queue, of foreign-born individuals gaining from a system neglecting natives. The protests in Falkirk are focused on “safety, justice, and standing up for the people of Falkirk,” Save Our Future maintain.
Falkirk is my father’s hometown. He used to go to the Cladhan Hotel on nights out. He describes the huge industry in the town in the 1970s and 1980s; Imperial Chemical Industries provided swathes of jobs for Falkirk and Grangemouth, as did Grangemouth’s oil refinery; both offered sought-after apprenticeships providing what were seen as jobs for life. These sites have now shut down–the refinery this April.
The town is bleak. Falkirk’s economic inactivity rate is 24.8 per cent, above the UK-wide figure of 21.6 per cent. Meanwhile, NHS Scotland’s waiting lists have grown, with 38,702 people having waited for a year or longer, while Scottish education standards are also falling. Is that fair?
These problems are not the fault of migration. We have a moral and legal obligation to support those claiming asylum, and foreign-born individuals bring great value to Britain (most notably, the roughly 19% of NHS workers who report a foreign nationality). They are instead the result of political failure – for example, the SNP’s curriculum reforms, which have worsened learning outcomes, particularly for poorer students. But Scotland’s rightward shift is caused by perception: in a video essay on debates around transgender people, Abigail Thorn presents claims that opposition to transgender rights stems from the similarities between concern over where those rights could lead and existing injustices facing people. Something similar is infecting the immigration debate.
Struggling to pay your rent? Asylum seekers are given free accommodation. Concerned about your children’s future, given their inadequate education? One asylum seeker in the Cladhan Hotel has been convicted of raping a 15-year-old. (That one person is not representative of all is elided in the right’s logic.) Feel that your community is in decline? As Trevor Phillips argued, your local hotel, where you may have spent major life events, is now unavailable.
Immigration has been seen to be unjust, while other forces have damaged lives. Add to that political mismanagement of the asylum system, evidenced by huge backlogs causing costs to balloon, and the Left’s failures in office (Labour’s winter fuel payments fiasco, for example), which have undermined Labour and the SNP’s arguments for progressivism’s benefits and leaving only anti-migrant sentiment. People have been pushed away from progressivism in search of justice, pushed right in search of righteousness.
Tony Benn said that there are two flames burning in the human heart: the flame of anger at injustice, and the flame of hope for a better world. The Scottish flame of anger at injustice is evolving, no longer against Westminster or the capital, but foreigners. Scotland was once renowned for its love of the nation. To be sure, it still is–but who can be part of that nation is anyone’s guess.
“grangemouth” by _gee_ is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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