The biggest losers in the Scottish election are not who you think they are
It is the people of Scotland who have lost out most because of the failings of ambitious, careerist politicians
Philip Kurland is a man with a bumper collection of bad jokes. “That’s Philip with only one L. My family couldn’t afford another one,” he quips. He also claims to have America’s biggest collection of political memorabilia for sale.
Walking into his shop – a former general store in the heart of the small town of Plains, Georgia (population 600) – was for me, a political geek, better than any Christmas morning as a child. Even the year I got a typewriter.
Everywhere I looked were thousands of badges, from presidential and other campaigns stretching back to the 19th century, including one from Abraham Lincoln's funeral in 1865. There were bumper stickers, posters, postcards, even Christmas baubles.
“Do you have any Shirley Chisholm badges?” I asked. Chisholm was the first woman and first African American to seek the nomination for president from a major political party (the Democrats). “Of course I do, he said, guiding me to a basket full, not quite to overflowing, of Chisholm buttons. He went on: “John Lewis, the Atlanta congressman, bought almost all of my Shirley buttons when he was here. And Michael Stipe, you know, of REM, he spend hundreds of dollars on Ted Kennedy.”
“I have had LBJ’s daughters in here, the great Willie Nelson and of course Jimmy would come in around once a week with Rosalynn, his wife. He was a friend.”
'Jimmy' was Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, elected in 1976, only to lose four years later to Ronald Reagan. He was born in Plains, Georgia, lived in Plains, except when he took up residence in the White House, return to home to Plains after his election defeat and built a successful career as a global humanitarian. On December 29, 2024, he died, aged 100, in Plains.
He was a peanut farmer, a community activist, a state governor, the leader of the free world, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and, by all accounts, an all-round good guy. “Though he could have a temper,” said Philip. “But he was happy to have a political discussion with you, as long as you used facts to argue with him." He pauses. “Plains misses him, it took us some time to get over his death.”
Three days after my pilgrimage to Plains, and with a bag full of badges, I watched the Scottish Parliament elections unfold on social media and in the press. It was a dispiriting experience. No one will be collecting ‘John Swinney for FM’ badges in ten years’ time. There will be no ‘I’m backing Anas’ car stickers or even ‘Alex C-H is peachy’ T-shirts for collectors to fight over.
The Scottish people are scunnered by politics and politicians, and who can blame them? The promise of devolution has – in a generation – all but disappeared. If a ‘who cares, they’re all the same’ party had stood, its leader would now be picking up the keys to Bute House.
Instead, Swinney and the SNP look set to stumble into another five years of government. But the main casualties of these elections are not Anas Sarwar or Russell Findlay, but Scotland itself. Pollsters, pundits and political scientists will all have their pet theories as to why these Holyrood elections have been a damp squib, but the people know best.
They haven’t turned to populist parties like Reform and the Greens because they are far-right or far-left, or refused to vote because they are not interested in what happens to the job market, their kids’ education or the price of fuel. They have turned their back on mainstream parties because a generation of political careerists has ignored them in their selfish pursuit of power and privilege.
Observing Holyrood these past ten years has been like watching the members of an elite club quibble over their internal goings-on. The Scottish Parliament no longer seems connected to real life. Grandiose promises are made and broken with impunity – remember how Nicola Sturgeon made closing the educational attainment gap her defining mission?
Instead, the SNP offers gimmicks like free schoolbags as an alternative to better schools. Women were told they were simply a ‘notion’ and that men can be female if they so choose. Gaza is cited as often as Greenock in the chamber, if not more. The myth of ‘independence’ is trotted out as the answer to every problem, from drug deaths to youth unemployment.
Politics is not a game. It’s how societies change things for the better, from setting up the National Health Service to realising the settled will of the Scottish people through devolving power. But it shouldn’t be left to people full of ambition, but without any substance. We need our politicians to be better, and to work harder.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter gave a major speech, entitled the Crisis of Confidence, in which he argued America’s problems were deeper than “gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession... And I realise more than ever that as president I need your help. So, I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America.” He quoted a Southern governor who had told him: "Don't talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good."
The biggest losers of Thursday’s election are not career politicians, but middle-aged women caring for their elderly mothers; newly qualified teachers desperate to secure their first post; or young men dying from a methadone overdose.
Our politicians stopped listening to the voices of Scotland some time ago and Holyrood no longer appears to understand our “common good”. The next five years will show whether this intake of MSPs has the will – and the ability – to restore our faith and confidence in the Scottish Parliament. I am not hopeful.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.