'Total joke': Why Highlanders and Islanders' frustrations with politicians are boiling over
Across rural Scotland, the desire for change is palpable. There is only so much condescension that people can take
In just over ten weeks from now, the Scottish parliamentary elections will be in full swing. We will not know the result until then and we may not fully understand it even after it has arrived. Politics is more fluid than it has ever been and, in Scotland’s rural communities, that is true in spades.
In 2007, the election of an SNP government (much though I disliked it) felt like something new and different. Eighteen years down the line, the nationalists look about as fresh as the last mince pie in the Christmas cupboard. The relentless process of SNP centralisation has left rural and island Scotland feeling impotent, ignored and frustrated.
Nowhere is that seen better than in the operation of CalMac, left by complacent ministers to run an ageing fleet of ferries that should have been replaced years ago.
Another broken down ferry
I have some skin in the game here. I recently had occasion to get a pump delivered to restore water to the home of my 94-year-old father in Islay. The local haulier could not have been more helpful.
It all went swimmingly – until he got to the ferry terminal at Kennacraig, from where he texted me on a Friday morning: “It’s in the standby queue as we text but [ferry] Finlaggan now broken down. Been told I won’t get van over till 6pm Sunday. It is a total joke and we don’t meet compensation criteria. Impossible to run at profit in present fiasco.”
If the only problem facing island and rural communities were transport, it might be manageable. The malaise, however, goes far deeper than that.
The baggage of 18 years in power is difficult for the SNP to ditch. Delays to the dualling of the A9. The glacial pace of superfast broadband expansion. The botched rollout of a scheme to help small farmers and crofters. The costly registration system for self-catering holiday accommodation. The bitter fight to resist the imposition of highly protected marine areas in our fishing grounds – the list goes on.
Fury at SNP
In any normal time, this would be a fertile environment for opposition parties. In some areas that is true. Call me biased, but at this point the renaissance of Liberal Democrat fortunes in the Highlands is pretty well established. Beyond that, however, fury at the SNP is not translating into further electoral prospects for other parties.
The missing link in all this is Labour. At the last general election, they swept much of Scotland before them – not just the cities and towns, but also rural communities in Ayrshire, Arran and Fife.
The SNP took a heavy tumble, but the Starmer government in Westminster quickly lost the ear of rural Britain as well. The recent partial climbdown on inheritance tax for farmers may stop some of the bleeding but it is unlikely to shift the dial for Labour this side of May.
Across rural Scotland, the desire for change is palpable. There is only so much condescension and centralisation that rural communities will take before they push back hard against both Edinburgh and London.
We will not know the outcome of this year’s election for some time yet – but any party claiming to speak for rural Scotland needs to understand this lesson now.
Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland
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