Dead Souls: The Conservative Party in Scotland

Dead Souls: The Conservative Party in Scotland

 First, the good news. In common with right wing parties everywhere, the Conservative Party in Scotland enjoys the support of much of the business community. This is important because the experiences of businesspeople need to be represented and their views listened to if an economy is to prosper.

There is one category of businessperson that deserves particular attention; they are the people who start new businesses. Economists call them entrepreneurs. It is primarily the doing of new things that makes an economy grow. And it is taxes on the growth of economic activity that pay for the rising costs of the NHS, schools and the other public services we take for granted. Economic growth also drives the rise in our individual living standards. Alister Jack, Boris Johnson’s recently appointed political representative in Scotland, is an entrepreneur. In the last ten years he has built a successful new business providing secure storage facilities, and we should salute him for that achievement.

Like right wing voters everywhere, Scottish Tories are lacking in imagination. Most, although not all, find if it difficult to think what life must be like for people less fortunate than themselves. Unlike business-supporting parties in other countries, however, Scottish Conservatives seem to be lacking in other important human qualities, notably patriotism, brains and backbone. The most important of these missing elements is patriotism. Everywhere else in the world, businessmen and women are proud of their homeland and feel responsible for its wellbeing. They take it for granted that  their country should stand on its own feet. For other nations, independence and sovereignty are normal. Scottish Conservatives, however, appear to be terrified by the prospect of their country governing itself. Whenever such a proposal comes up they cling even more fearfully to England’s apron strings. Their answer to the frequently asked question: how can we make Scotland’s economy stronger, is always the same: shake the begging bowl more vigorously.

And yet they say they are proud of their country. Others wonder how they can be proud of their country when they are so attached to its continued dependence on England. How can they reconcile their support for Scotland’s state of dependence with their belief in self-reliance and responsibility as valuable personal characteristics? When challenged about their patriotism, Scottish Conservatives often point to their ardent support for their country on the sports  field. Jim Sillars famously labelled such people ‘90-minute patriots’. For Scottish Tories, who are more often to be found at Murrayfield than at Hampden, their patriotism lasts for an even shorter period of time: just 80 minutes. Often they will say they are British as well as Scottish, apparently unaware that outside Scotland the distinction between British and English does not exist.

 They were not always like this. The greatest Scottish Conservative of all, Sir Walter Scott, was profoundly patriotic. When in 1826 the British Government tried to abolish the Scottish pound note, he mounted a successful political campaign to save it. It is to his efforts that we owe the continued existence of Scottish banknotes to this day. Scott’s novels and poems celebrating episodes of Scottish history made the country famous around the world. In his epic poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel he wrote the memorable lines : “Breathes there the man, with soul so dead/ Who never to himself hath said/ This is my own , my native land!” Well, yes, there are such men breathing and walking about in Scotland today: the Scottish Tories are not just eighty minute patriots, they are dead souls.

Scottish Conservatives are not lacking only in patriotism, they are short of backbone and brains as well. The political leadership that they should be providing to their country is absent.  The party in Scotland is content to be a passive, know-nothing, do-nothing body, relying on London for its ideas as well for its money and organisation. Their parliamentary representatives at Holyrood and Westminster seem incapable of thinking for themselves. The 10 DUP MPs have exercised far more influence at Westminster than the 12 Scottish Conservatives. If the DUP can advance their economic interests so effectively at Westminster and in Whitehall, why can’t Scots Tories do the same?

A good example of the Tories’ unwillingness to take Scottish interests seriously is their attitude to immigration.  The native Scottish workforce is shrinking fast while the pensioner age population is growing rapidly.  So, as Michael Fry has frequently pointed out, attempts to pursue a growth strategy are likely soon to run up against a shortage of labour, unless we can find workers from elsewhere.  Some Tories have occasionally hinted at the problem, but never so as to challenge the virulent hostility to immigrants among English Conservative party members and voters.

 One should never underestimate the willingness of the Scottish Tories  to toe whatever line is handed down to them. When Edward Heath was Prime Minister, he forced them to swallow the principle of devolution. This was embodied in their 1973 Declaration of Perth. As soon as Heath’s successor Margaret Thatcher signalled her disapproval of devolution, the Scottish Tories gratefully changed their minds. It is surprising the lengths to which some of them will go to put party before country. In the runup to the 2016 referendum on EU membership David Mundell, Alister Jack’s predecessor as Secretary of State, campaigned in favour of a vote to Remain, arguing rightly that leaving the EU would damage the Scottish economy. When Leave won and Theresa May produced her hard Brexit proposal, requiring Scotland to leave not just the EU, but the Single Market and the Customs Union as well, Mr Mundell suddenly discovered that a hard Brexit would be good for Scotland after all. But he said he drew the line at leaving the EU without an agreement. He let it be known that for this reason he couldn’t serve in any government led by Boris Johnson. But when Johnson looked like he was going to be chosen as PM, Mundell surprisingly became available to serve. After Johnson showed his disdain for Mundell by sacking him, Mundell went through the Lobby with Johnson and those who wanted a No-Deal Brexit.

 Now that the Conservative Party in England has transformed itself into an extreme right wing English Nationalist party, (see my blog The Strange Death of Conservative England, posted on  3 September), how will the Scottish Conservatives respond? Some won’t even notice. The rest will follow the change of direction from London unthinkingly, as they have always done in the past.  What about following their Scottish ‘Leader’ ? Their recently departed leader, the fast-talking Ruth Davidson, had a readiness with words befitting a  former TV presenter.  But asking questions at Holyrood probably represented the limits of her ability. She was Leader of the Scottish party in name only. Although her oratory succeeded in rallying the unionist vote in 2017 to gain twelve seats at Westminster, no Scottish Tory MP would defer to her views. While she did not have a policy idea in her head, Ms Davidson did at least have some backbone. Being asked to front a Brexit policy that was clearly contrary to Scottish economic interests and against the declared political wishes of the Scottish people, she chose the honourable course of action and quit.