As I predicted in "The Week" several weeks ago, the Labour Government's apparent indifference towards the special problems of the "underdeveloped! areas of Britain was reflected in the vote gained by the Scottish Netionalist candidate in the Polle& by-election (The ‘trend is also clearly seen in Welsh Nationalist support in Rhonnda). Proportion of votes cast for 1966 1967 by-election
Labour 52.4; 31.2%
Tory ‘47.6% 36.9%
SNF ) 28.2%
Communist ) no candidate 1.8%
Liberal ) 1.% . It is clear from the above that whatever they knew of Labour's policies, the Pollok electors who switched votes did not regard the Tories as an alternative -- clearly f£cotland's experience from 1951-64 remains in their minds. At the other’end of the spectrum the Communist, who was generally acknowledged to be the best candid:te, made by far the best impression on television, and possessed the most coherent programme, collected a derisory total. Theoretically this was a situation in which the CP should have profited considerably. If any further proof of the impotence of their parliamentary aspirations was required Pollok surely provided it. Instead many traditional Labour supporters chose to give their vote to the Scottish National Party. The latter has been growing apace over the last 18 months, Its total membership now far exceeds that of the Labour Party in Scotland. It managed to draft in hundreds of young people to the Pollok campaign. Its badges were sported every where in the Glasgow local elections Its vote has leapt from 4,000 in 1964 to 9,000 in 1965 and 18,000 in 1966 when it contested less than half of the seats. This year it will contest all the 37 wards at a time when the Labour Party only needs to lose 5 seats to be forced to relinquish control of the corporation, And all this is happening not in the long-neglected far-flung rural areas of Scotland, but in the most proletarian city in Britzin,. Wilson and his advisors should reflect that it is their policies which have brought about this phenomenon. Scotland has not been cushioned from the effects of the freeze -- the current unemployment rate remains nearly twice the national average. Frices -- a recurring issue in the follok campaign -- are higher for basic commodities such as. food. Coal-is 30/--per ton more than in England. Average wages are £4 per week below the level in the Southfast. Housing is the worst in the country and the burden of paying for redevelopment keéps rates exorbitantly high. Above all the Pollok campaign immediately followed the government's decision to disallow the 7% salary award given to local government staffs in Scotland, while paying this to their English and Welsh colleagues, and their intervention to stop payment of the 1/- per hour increase to Scottish contracting electricians. The nationalist undertones in the strike which has arisen out of the latter are clear warnings of this general trend.
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What is'now becoming clear is that a government which decides to submit
to the national and international demands of capitalism and imperialism
finds itself unable to satisfy the demands of its own supporters who will
become increasingly alienated. In the 'undeveloped' areas - inevitably
hit first, the initial reaction to this will inevitably take the form ~~
of a fairly crude nationalism where this is appropriate.
For socialists this development has both positive and negative aspects.
On the one hand we must be pleased that opposition to the Wilson
governments policies is now becoming manifest on a large scale and that
this opposition has not taken the form of a turn to the Tories. On the
other hand we must be extremely wary of a party whose candidate in Pollok
advocated support for the Auwericans in Vietnam and Scotland's entry into
the Common Market, along with the usual vote-catching formula of attack-
ing London-based government. And we have to continually hammer home the
case for opposition to the government being conducted within the Labour
movement, lest the, often worthily motivated, energies of thousands of
young people be exhausted in a futile and basically reactionary movement.