“You should support the British Labour Party…your sister Party” they say.
“You should support the Irish Labour Party…your sister Party” they say.
I daresay they are only half-right. Family of sorts. And I daresay we would support them. If Joan Burton lost her seat in Dublin and opened a sandwich bar in the Jervis Street Shopping Mall, I might well be inclined to stop off for a wee cup of tea and a piece of apple tart. If Ed Miliband lost his seat in Doncaster and opened up a newsagents shop, I would certainly call there and buy my copy of The Guardian and The Irish News.
It seems only right and proper to support your siblings. But if your sibling Joan joins in coalition with a ruthless right wing Party like Fine Gael, you probably wouldn’t vote for your sister. If your sibling Ed sided with your worst enemy, David Cameron and bullied your girlfriend, then we cant really support that kinda thing.
There are of course great family occasions….weddings (or Party Conferences) where we toast each other with fraternal greetings and big set-piece occasions like ThanksGiving or European Elections where we ….SDLP, Irish Labour and British Labour are all from the greater Party of European Socialist Clan.
Much as we tolerate, like or even love our siblings….we are never going to marry them.
When it comes to LUUUUURRRRVVVVEEEEE….we have a wee Scottish lassie. The SNP is our “girlfriend”. The SNPs best friend is a wee Welsh girl, Plaid Cymru. If we ever get married to the SNP, I can see Plaid as the bridesmaid.
Family is Family of course. SDLP is “nationalist”….so of course are our siblings….Irish or British. Somehow our siblings dont like us flirting with a nationalist, who is Scottish. But hey….live with it. Ed has a problem with our Scottish girlfriend. His mates who live in the same street made our Scottish girlfriends life a misery. They were as bad as David and his old bitch of a mother, Maggie.
The point about “British” Politics is that SNP and Plaid Cymru dont actually have the word “Labour” in their titles. But they are more “Labour” than “Labour”. British Labour played with the affections of the Scots…and the SNP accuse Labour of abusing Scotland and taking her for granted.
But how Labour is Labour?. Privileged Londoners… sons of a German refugee intellectual scurry off to Labour heartlands like South Shields and Doncaster to further their careers. Likewise than intellectual con-man Tony B Liar in Sedgefield.
Surely our girl….the first in her family to attend university is at least as working class as anyone in Labour. And of course, she actually holds more Labour values than anyone in British Labour. The SNP government in Scotland has the kinda programme that should be in a Labour manifesto….education, health, defence, ethical foreign policy.
It is a simple truth that British Labour is dishonest and trustworthy. It is actually in the intersts of socialism that SNP, Plaid Cymru and SDLP keep Labour honest.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
What does exist in the Scottish branch of the family are real live “unicorns” ie catholic unionists.
A chap called Jim Murphy breeds them.
Strangely a lot of them seem to have Irish names.
Luckily politics has moved on as have the younger generation.
Here’s to the future.
And oh, one last thing.
“I never left Labour, they left me”.
A lot of Tory-Labour stuff in Scotland is Orange-Green stuff.
Catholic voters have ceertainly been deserting Labour since the days of Neil Kinnock.
And a lot turning to SNP in recent years.
In part that is not unique to Scotland.
A lot of traditional Catholic support in South Lancashire, Northumbria etc cant identify with London based Labour ….the likes of https://fitzjameshorselooksattheworld.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/poster-boys-girls-6-alban-maginness-sdlp/Blair, two Millibands representing northern constituencies is daft.
And Mandelson was MP for Hartlepool.
Thing is, someone to the left politically in Scotland can always go somewhere else with their vote ie the SNP.
What does a socialist do in the North of England?
Vote Green or tiny groups that will never break through and win a seat.
Exactly.
Labour are not just paying the price for the Referendum in Scotland. They are also paying a price for taking their voters for granted.
Thats the same in the North of England.
Some votes will go to UKIP.
Quite impressed by what Ed Miliband is doing, and the direction he is taking Labour, seems to be definitely onto the issue of inequality and for a fairer system, have a feeling that he has been underestimated by the Tories.
Not so sure.
He is a decent enough guy but this Election is like watching a series of “The Thick of It”.
Very little substance.
Everyone knows that nobody can fulfil a promise. I dont think the Electorate expects anything so the protest votes will be high.