Beginning to Hope

The election in Scotland won't just about choosing a government, it's an opportunity to reject the divisive politics that have ruined our country.

As I watched the Prime Minister calling the election earlier I felt a strange and unfamiliar feeling: hope. Perhaps it was a subconscious thing, triggered by the wag who was blasting out Things Can Only Get Better on a loudspeaker while Sunak spoke, but it was a feeling of hope that immediately took me back to the late 1990s.

I’m not a fan of political nostalgia. Living in the past doesn’t help you chart a course for the future. Today I felt a familiar hope that we would have a Labour government again, but there was something else too that I found myself hoping for.

This election is about more than just changing government, it is about leaving behind a politics that has left our country poorer, more divided and less successful than before.

In Scotland, we have had two governing parties who awake in the morning to search for imaginary enemies to fight rather than real problems to solve. One of those governing parties carries the label of conservative but has fought culture wars against so many of our great institutions: the National Trust, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the RNLI… Little wonder so many decent conservatives are so embarrassed by what they have become. The other governing party carries the label of Scottishness yet sees enemies in shortbread, teacakes, whisky, haggis, Edinburgh Castle…

Every day that goes by with these mindless distractions our country sinks further and further into despair and ruin.

When we cast our votes we will be choosing a candidate to represent us and a government to look after us. We will also be signalling that we have had enough of a politics that treats us like idiots. Enough of parties who think that we can be made more angry at frivolous distractions than failures by our governments.

Populism thrives in an environment where people have lost hope. After a decade of economic decline, so many people have lost faith, not just in politics as a process but in government as a potential source of positive change in their life. Stories of a yacht in Monaco or a campervan in Uddingston encourage people’s worst suspicions of those of us who put ourselves forward in public life. Working harder for a worse standard of living has left people broke and broken. The public services that used to be the source of reassurance have become another reason for anxiety.

Perhaps we can only convince people that politics is a noble pursuit again through action after the election rather than any words spoken before it - but we can make people begin to hope for something better than what they have experienced lately.

I’ve been thinking a lot today about a line by Gwendolyn Brooks:

“Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night.”

The thought of a government committed to the boring, unglamorous and difficult work of change excites me so much. The prospect of a vote where, once again, Scots declare that they’re not taken in by the easy lies of populist nationalism thrills me. There are a long six weeks, and a lot of hard work ahead, but we can begin to hope.

As readers know, I’m a candidate in this election¹. As such editions of the newsletter might be slightly less regular over the coming weeks. My own contest against the SNP locally could not be closer: the latest modelling has me ahead of the nationalists but by only 365 votes. It’s the type of margin that doesn’t encourage a good night’s sleep for a candidate.

If you would like to help me pull off what might be the biggest upset of the night in this election, please consider chipping into my crowdfunder. Like all election campaigns, everything I spend in the next few weeks must come from supporters and anything you give will make a huge difference in such a close race.

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1. Promoted by Gareth McGuinness on behalf of Blair McDougall both at 7 East Kilbride Road, Rutherglen, G73 5EA.