This is the most important column I will write
during my political life.
A week tomorrow the people of Scotland go to the
polls to make the most significant decision in the history of our country.
For make no mistake: the choice we face on 18
September is of momentous proportions. If the majority of Scots vote to
separate from the rest of the United Kingdom it will change our lives for ever
and in ways that many of us probably don’t currently realise.
The full implications of our separation and divorce
from England, Wales and Northern Ireland will only become clear after we vote
and by then there will be no turning back.
The latest polls suggest that the outcome of the
referendum is on a knife edge and that voters in traditional Labour supporting neighbourhoods
will determine the final result.
The Nationalists have been working extremely hard
to convince Labour supporters in such areas that by voting Yes they will see an
end to Tory governments for ever in Scotland and that once Scotland is
independent we will always get the government we vote for. These arguments may
be superficially attractive to some but scratch beneath the surface and they
don’t hold water.
The majority of people in Scotland did not vote for
the SNP in 2011 but we still ended up with a majority SNP Government. There is
every reason to believe that following separation and the realignment of
political parties Scotland will be ruled by governments of the centre right.
For despite what many people think, Scotland is not
and has never been a socialist country. The only party to ever win a majority
of the popular vote in Scotland was the Conservative Party.
As a Council Leader I meet with Leaders from all
parts of Scotland and I know only too well that the political views and
traditions of many of them are far removed from my own.
The advances made by working people in this country
in the past 100 years – such as universal suffrage, the welfare state, the
national health service, workers’ rights, equal pay and the national minimum wage – were achieved by
working people in every part of these small islands coming together in
solidarity through the Labour and Trade Union movement.
It held true 100 years ago and it holds true now:
working people in Greenock, Port Glasgow and Gourock have more in common with
working people in Liverpool, Cardiff and Belfast than they do with the SNP’s
big business backers like Stagecoach owner Brian Souter, former RBS Chairman
Sir George Mathewson and even multi-millionaire tax exile Jim McColl of Clyde
Blowers.
Does anyone seriously think they are supporting Yes
because they want to turn Scotland into a socialist state?
The one tax policy in the SNP’s independence white
paper is a cut in corporation tax designed to benefit big business.
The break-up of Britain will only serve to weaken
the working class and the Labour and Trade Union movement. It is likely to lead
to more Tory Governments at Westminster controlling key levers of the Scottish
economy, whether or not we have a currency union, and an economic race to the
bottom as Scotland and the rest of the UK compete for jobs by cutting taxes, wages
and workers’ terms and conditions.
I am confident that the majority of Labour voters
in Inverclyde will vote No to separation. I would appeal to those currently
planning to vote Yes to think again.
If you want to build a fairer and more just Scotland
the best way to achieve that is to vote No on 18 September 2014 and vote Labour
on 7 May 2015.
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