Secret SNP sleeper agent Kezia Dugdale, long since brilliantly exposed by the genius of Ian Smart, let the side down badly yesterday by posting this -
"For decades the SNP said voting Labour was pointless because England was true blue. Now they argue it's so left wing, it'll vote Labour for you. Make it make sense."
It's pretty much impossible to make that make sense, because as a paraphrase of the SNP's position it cannot possibly be accurate. Labour were in power at Westminster, and thus had a majority of English seats, as recently as May 2010, so plainly the SNP can't have been saying "for decades" that England is true blue. Nor can I see any evidence that the SNP are saying now that England will vote Labour "for you", ie. for Scotland. There's simply an observation based on strong evidence that England pretty clearly plans to vote Labour for its own reasons, and that Scottish voters are entitled to factor that into their own thinking. Whatever those reasons are, they're unlikely to have much to do with left-wing impulses, given that Starmer's Labour is right-wing, illiberal, authoritarian and militaristic.
There's also an implicit assumption in the "for you" line that Labour represents the heart's desire of Scots, and that the SNP are eccentrically suggesting that people can somehow get Labour by voting for another party. In fact, what the SNP are presumably assuming is that voters want the Tories out, which is not the same thing as craving a majority Labour government, however much Labour activists might try to pretend the two concepts are interchangeable. In her Press & Journal piece, Ms Dugdale says this:
"If Labour need to win 110 seats at this year's election in order to form a Government, you'd expect at least 10% of those to come from Scotland. Call it a Barnett formula share.
Without winning any seats in Scotland, there is still a route to Number 10 for Keir Starmer, but it requires securing something akin to a 14% swing."
But that's not true, is it? There's an additional route to Number 10 for Starmer, and thus an additional route to a non-Tory government, which involves the support of SNP MPs for a Labour government that lacks a majority. In seats that only the SNP and Labour can win, it therefore doesn't matter who comes out on top from the point of view of a voter who only cares about dislodging the Tories from power - unless of course you think the SNP would prop up a Tory government, which they plainly wouldn't. Labour are banking on voters not understanding that point, and perhaps they might even be in luck there. But come on, Kez, don't insult our intelligence by pretending you don't understand it yourself.
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