Missing in Action

The evil of ISIS understandably provokes a desire to 'do something', and this has caused not a few people who should know better down a bellicose path. One voice of wise caution in recent weeks has been Michael Meacher, who - in an interesting blogpost - said this,

It is imperative that Britain isn’t drawn into this imbroglio all over again. Britain’s record in the Middle East has been irredeemably negative and counter-productive from the overthrow of the democratically elected Mossadeq in Iran in 1953, through backing for the Shah as a weak Western puppet and then the arming of Saddam Hussein to fight the proxy war against Iran, and then to the illegal and catastrophic invasion of Iraq in 2003 on utterly false pretences to gain a permanent foothold on the oil.

Quite.

Yesterday, parliament voted to authorise air-strikes on ISIS. Labour whipped in favour, 23 MPs rebelled . They were:

Diane Abbott (Hackney North & Stoke Newington), Graham Allen (Nottingham North), Dame Anne Begg (Aberdeen South), Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley), Martin Caton (Gower), Katy Clark (Ayrshire North & Arran), Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North), Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West), Paul Flynn (Newport West), Stephen Hepburn (Jarrow), Kate Hoey (Vauxhall), Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North), Sian James (Swansea East), Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North & Leith), John McDonnell (Hayes & Harlington), Iain McKenzie (Inverclyde), Austin Mitchell (Great Grimsby), Grahame Morris (Easington), George Mudie (Leeds East), Linda Riordan (Halifax), Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield), Dennis Skinner (Bolsover), Graham Stringer (Blackley & Broughton) and Mike Wood (Batley & Spen).

Notice a significant absence?

Michael Meacher was in parliament yesterday.

Off message

Harry Leslie Smith is the author of Harry's Last Stand, an engaging book calling - on the basis of his experience of the Great Depression and the Second World War - for the preservation of the Welfare State. He is the face of a politics of social democratic nostalgia, tinged with a certain 'progressive' British (or perhaps, these days, English) nationalism. This is not without severe problems - see Owen Hatherley here, or comments in Richard Seymour's latest book. That said, there is a dignity and conviction about the man, and he serves as a living reminder of the horrors that devastated lives before the 1945 settlement.

Earlier this week, Harry Leslie Smith gave a speech at the Labour Party Conference:


His role in the conference, carefully carved out for him by Party managers was to speak about the NHS. Notice, however, that at key points he goes beyond this brief. He talks about "welfare cuts" and "austerity". And what he says about these things is spot on.

But here's the problem. The Labour leadership is committed to both austerity and welfare cuts. Ed Balls has pledged repeatedly to constrain a future Labour government with current Tory spending limits. Not only is there precious little sign of Tory benefit cuts being reversed, but this week Balls promised more - announcing a policy of real terms cuts in child benefit.

Austerity destroys lives. That is indeed the message of history. Is it one that the Labour front bench is prepared to hear?

Friday Video Corner - Mitford Family Memorial Edition

So farewell then...

Alex Salmond; well you've got to feel sorry for him today. An unremarkable social democratic politician, heading a party that isn't even that good, thrust into the limelight by the national question and the dreadfulness of New Labour.

The SNP, under a new leadership, could be set to storm home in Scotland next year. For years, Labour has relied on West of Scotland seats returning Labour MPs on derisory turnouts. Yesterday these seats turned out at around the 75% mark. And they voted 'Yes'. If I were Ed Miliband, I'd be worried.

Friday Video Corner

Something could have happened

And something did happen, to the extent that the Yes campaign galvanised wide support and showed us a different way of doing politics. Turnout was incredible, especially in Glasgow and as a friend reminded me, this at least has the virtuous effect of undermining the complacency with which dull, leadership loyal, Labour MPs have treated West of Scotland seats as sinecures. It also shows up commonplace assertions about 'apathy' to be the over-simplifications they are. Start talking about things that matter, and people vote.

All of that said, it was a decisive 'no' vote, at the time of writing looking about 54%, 46%. Your host is tired, hungover from whisky and hope, and doesn't have too much to say at this stage. A few bullet points then:

• The secure result was secured on the basis of panicked promises of devomax, and threats about currency and business exodus. 
• That said, it was probably too secure to undermine Cameron's position.
• Expect, however, Tory infighting and attempts to retreat from the promises of the campaign's last week. 
• The UK's third largest city voted decisively against being part of the UK, as did Scotland's own third city. This should prompt a bit of reflection.
• UKIP are already positioning themselves as a 'pro-English' party with respect to debates around devomax, federalism, and the Barnett formula. This is concerning and needs watching.
• It looks like the 'yes' vote was higher amongst younger people. If that is right, then this has not been settled for good.
• What McDonnell said:

Can say it now polls have closed.Never again should Labour go in with Tories in a campaign coalition.Disillusions & divides our supporters.
— John McDonnell (@johnmcdonnellMP) September 18, 2014

Vote 'yes' in Scotland

And when I am in the boards
my words will be a prophecy.

They will return, the stock of the crofters
Who were driven out of the sea.

And the aristocratic 'beggars'
will be routed as they were.

Deer and sheep will be carted away
and the glens will be tilled;

A time of sowing and a time of reaping,
and a time to reward the robbers.

And the cold ruined houses
will be built up by our kind.

The last poem of Mary MacDonald, marking the end of an artistic life set against the horror of the Highland Clearances.

If you are registered to vote in Scotland tomorrow, you have the chance to redeem some of the bloody history of that country's oppression. You should do so, and vote 'yes'. And, wherever you are, the ultimate task is to consign to history the capitalist system which destroyed lives for profit years ago in the Highlands, and continues to do so today.

The working class is better together, the British state isn't

I've already explained why I support a 'yes' vote tomorrow here and here.

A brief post, then, merely to deride the last desperate recourse of the red-tinged wing of Better Together. It is about class unity. Don't divide Britain and Scotland! That will divide the working class. So say the dimmer recesses of ultra-leftism, and, um, Ed Miliband.

The thought that working class solidarity can, and does, cross borders doesn't occur. Nor does the thought that, if solidarity stops at borders then - given global capitalism - we are all well and truly fucked. Already.

Look, however, it the version of 'working class' identity that is being offered by, at least, the Labour leadership. It is a distinctly Blue Labour vision of a class whose solidarity stops at national borders (there, is, for instance, no question of solidarity with undocumented workers). Wrapped in the Union Jack and nostalgic talk of togetherness and community, like some kind of past-it mod revival, the proponents of this view lecture a 'yes' movement that has been marked by left-wing politics and internationalism about the dangers of nationalism from a position of British chauvinism. Their picture of the working class belongs in a living museum. Let's put it out of its misery, and breathe life into the real thing.

Friday Video Corner - Scottish Referendum Special