Are the SNP “trash-talking” Ed Miliband because they really want David Cameron re-elected?
One of the more intriguing encountesr in tonight’s seven-way will be that between Labour leader Ed Miliband and Scottish Nationalist leader Nicola Sturgeon.
The anti-Tory rhetoric of Sturgeon and her predecessor Alex Salmond is regarded with deep distrust by Labour.
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They believe the SNP really want a Cameron government because that’s their best route to independence. (Remember - with no Scottish seats upsetting the maths, the Conservatives would have the chance to rule at Westminster for the foreseeable future.)
The risk of any pact between Labour and the SNP is that it would diminish the argument that Scotland can only prosper by cutting its ties with Westminster.
The view is summed up on the Labour List website by regular blogger Sonny Hundal who points out that in a recent interview Nicola Sturgeon labelled Miliband as “slightly weak” and said later that the SNP would “keep [Labour] honest”.
“Who goes into serious negotiations by slagging off their potential partner as ‘weak” and dishonest’?” asks Hundal. “In the US they call it ‘trash talking’ – insulting your opponent ahead of combat. It’s almost like the SNP want to antagonise Miliband and create a bad atmosphere before any talks take place.”
Why? Because the Nationalists want to give the impression to Scottish voters that they oppose the re-election of the much loathed (north of the border) Tories but actually have no desire to team up with Miliband’s party.
Says Hundal: “The SNP aren’t serious about working with Labour – this is a charade so they can later walk away from any deal and blame Miliband for not offering everything.”
In a similar vein, Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, bracketed the SNP and the Tories in a speech in Glasgow. They shared a consensus, he said, that no new investment is required in Scotland to end austerity in the coming year. By contrast, his first Labour budget would end "Tory austerity".
The hostility to the Scottish Nationalists extends across the Labour Party. Left-wing Labour MPs have sharply rebuffed overtures from the SNP for a progressive bloc with the Greens and Welsh nationalists after the general election.
According to The Guardian, the SNP would seek to make alliances opposing fracking, Trident and austerity. But Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, of the socialist Campaign Group in the Commons, dispute the SNP’s left-wing credentials.
Corbyn said the SNP government in Edinburgh had handed ScotRail to a private contractor, and their proposals to cut corporation tax were hardly an act of redistribution.
“I do question the assumption that they’re a massive left-wing force," he says. "Yes, they do oppose Trident and yes they’re against austerity, but the idea they’re a socialist party is far off the mark, actually.”
McDonnell said: “Given its track record in Scotland in supporting cuts in public spending, a race to the bottom on tax and privatising rail and ferries, there is a huge divide between what socialists in the Labour Party stand for and SNP nationalists.”
