Humza Yousaf: an earthquake in Scottish politics and UK politics

 

Humsa Yousaf: an earthquake in Scottish politics and UK politics

From Alex Salmond, through Nicola Sturgeon to Humza Yousaf, the SNP was a different SNP every step of the way. The surge of the Alba Party was part of this voyage.

Practically from the very beginning, Alex Salmond was telling us that Scotland could be independent and self-financing with Scottish oil and gas resources. That was his fighting card. 

The arrival of Nicola Sturgeon (and of her husband now facing fraud charges) made people believe that Nicola Sturgeon could get things done and she was the darling of the mass media until her fall that some say was motivated by pressures related to a fraud investigation. She also made the ill fated decision to have a coalition with the Green Party that brought in very unsavoury policies in terms of energy and of gender politics, something that was questioned outright by Scottish voters that started to turn their backs on the SNP.

Events outside the United Kingdom and markedly the crisis in the Middle East had a negative impact, once again, because the ethnicity and religion card has been played over and over again. The Zionist Movement could not possibly accept a Muslim leader, critical of events in the Middle East. So the fall of Humza Yousaf has been caused by a cocktail of reasons and the choice of a new leader will tells in which direction Scotland is moving and in which direction British politics is moving with Muslim increasingly disenchanted that do not trust that there is a valid expression of their views and needs in British politics.

There are already signs that in the future British politics will be about ethnic politics and very little about real British needs. Angela Merkel, speaking about Germany, publicly said 'Multikulti ist tot' (Multiculturalism is dead). The same will now apply to British politics. 

Scotland: Was associating itself directly with the Independence Movement a faux pas?

 

Was the fact that the Independence Movement was directly linked to the SNP a serious mistake?

The Scottish National Party and its newly adopted leader and successor of Nicola Sturgeon are in deep waters. Their management of Scotland has left a lot to be desired and has somehow come to be seen as what would happen to Scotland if Scotland were to become independent. Management of health and education - to name two vital sectors of any economy - has been an unmitigated disaster. The association of SNP with the Greens as a way to remain in power has led to disastrous policy making as a way to keep the coalition going.

Long gone are the days when Alex Salmond, the most successful Scottish National Party Leader, used to tell everybody that Scottish oil resources would ensure a strong Scottish economy that would be independent from the rest of the United Kingdom. In a move to remain Socialists without being attached to what they called the English Labour Party, the Scots gave preeminence to the Scottish Green Party and Net Zero did the rest to undermine what had been until a more or less credible stance. 

The poison chalice for Nicola Sturgeon as Leader was on the surface her stance on Gender Politics and suddenly, she was stricken by a series of scandals around financial impropriety. Her way out - and her resignation as Leader was planned as a way to avoid a major crisis that could have sunk the SNP even lower - was designed as a way to disappear. No sooner she was out as leader, a political storm was unleashed.

Humza Yousaf was chosen as scapegoat. He was supposed to be Nicola Sturgeon's heir apparent. He did not inherit her power. She threw him to the wolves and now he faces the inevitable. If his first time as leader is to lose to the Labour Party opening the way back for Labour into Scottish politics, will he survive? The Scottish National Party is extremely factional. In fact, the SNP has been at war with itself not just in Scotland, but most visibly in Westminster.

The SNP should have seen that by closely associating itself with the Independence Movement all it has done is to push backwards the Independence project. The Scottish people have just realised that when it comes to health, education and the economy in general the SNP has not delivered and it cannot deliver precisely because of its close association with the Scottish Green Party.

You cannot base your calculations on fossil fuel energy while at the same time talk about getting rid of fossil fuels. It makes no sense. I can't possibly make sense. If anything, it has increased economic dependency. The point might come when Devolution itself will be questioned.  

 

Politics can change at very short notice and so can geopolitics

Keir Starmer

What happened in the last 48 hours is the equivalent of a political earthquake. Two political figures - Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon have been sidelined or so is that the forces that put them out of the way want to believe.

Nicola Sturgeon was not so much important as the Scottish leader that moved to break down the United Kingdom. She has been the tool used by those in charge of the European Union to put hurdles across the way of the Conservative governmenty in Westminster. She has been the outspoken defender of the EU against the British government. Who will have the political caliber to replace her and will the replacement follow the orders of the European Union? This remains to be seen.

No one apart from Nicola Sturgeon has the profile to play such a role and the Alba Party led by Alex Salmond will surely capitalize on her departure, in spite of the fact that Alex Salmond has been one of those targetted as part of the anti-Russia campaign. 

Some say that the Labour Party in Scotland will benefit, but this remains to be seen. The Labour Party is considered to be a London Metropolitan Party, not a national party, not a defender of Scottish interests at all and whoever has hopes regarding independence will not support the Labour Party.

The command given to Keir Starmer was to erradicate the left of the Labour Party that has been traditionally supportive of Palestine and very critical of Israeli policies in the occupied territories. Keir Starmer might not be Jewish, but his wife is Jewish and daughter of a Rabbi and their children are raised as Jews. Starmer married Victoria Alexander in 2007. The couples's son and daughter are being brought up in the Jewish faith of their mother. Victoria worked as a solicitor and now work in the National Health Service in occupational health. Victoria is originally from Poland and Keir Starmer stated that 'on her father's side there are mitzvahs, synagoques - there's all the traditions'. And also, presumably, all the related geopolitical allegiances that come with it.

Therefore, you don't have to struggle to guess what his views in terms of geopolitics and regarding the State of Israel actually are and this is why just a few hours ago he declared that Jeremy Corbyn will be excluded from the Labour Party and not allowed to stand as a Candidate in Islington, a seat that Jeremy Corbyn has represented for a very long time.    

In recent elections, the Conservative Party won control of the so called Red Wall, turning traditional Labour seats into Conservative seats. I wonder how traditional Labour and in particular Labour areas that have a predominantly Islamic population will react. Keir Starmer is a Metropolitan Londoner. It will be hard to persuade non Londoners and especially Northerners and Middle England. In the north, Andy Burnham, despite his retiscence to declare his aspirations regarding the leadership, has the right age, the right amount of experience and the right profile and as Mayor of Manchester can claim that he is not a privileged Southeasterner when a sizeable number of voters claim that Westminster has forgotten the rest of the country. In this regard, Keir Starmer's allegiance to Israel, his total contempt for the cause of Palestine, his inability to define what a woman is (surely he knows what a woman is, but he is afraid of straight answers that could put him on a collision course with segments of his own political party). To gain some support he will have to stop being a lawyer and become a politician. He will have to show courage and take real risks.

In terms of public image, he hasn't done extremely well. Kneeling down for the cameras was not his best moment. Emulating Boris Johnson by travelling to Kiev was not his best move either. His at best lukewarm support for the trade union movement did not dress him with flying colours either and it must be remarked that some critically important segments of the trade union movement no longer support the Labour Party. Will his charge against Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters win him many votes? Given the present political environment, the next General Election is for Keir Starmer to lose. Having said that, as we never expected Nicola Sturgeon to fall from power so ungratiously and so dramatically, it remains to be seen if Keir Starmer will be Labour leader in 2024. Will Jeremy Corbyn's supporters accept the invitation to leave the Labour Party? Will the Trade Unions that still support the Labour Party continue to support the Labour Party? What if the Labour Party is once again divided? Worse still, what if Labour voters as it has happened in recent times, decide to abstain?