Graham Martin on Kezia Dugdale challenging civil society to speak out more on poverty
Way to go Kezia – how to win friends and influence people.
When you have just hung your jacket on the shoogliest peg in Scottish politics, you’d think you’d go out of your way to win allies.
But not the bold Kezia Dugdale, who this week delivered what appeared to be a dressing down to Scotland’s charities and wider civil society for not doing enough to challenge poverty.
In case you missed it, Kezia has just been made leader of the Labour Party in Scotland.
That’s right – the Labour Party, which recently went all out in its defence of the vulnerable by collectively hiding in the bogs as the Tories pushed through vicious welfare changes.
It’s the voice of charities speaking out against the misery of austerity that the government wants to silence with legislation
She made her comments in an odd speech at Edinburgh College on Wednesday. It was one that was meant to spell out her vision of Labour as a meaningful opposition.
Fine. It just wasn’t clear what it is in opposition to. If it’s the SNP, say that. If it’s independence, say that – but instead Kezia lurched into tin-foil hat territory when she said we are being ruled by a “new establishment”, but never quite got down to telling us who that was.
Her problem, as ever with Labour centrists, is the Janus-faced attempt to be all things to all people. Spurred by the Corbyn insurrection which threatens to breathe life into her party south of the border, Kezia attempted to play the class card but couldn’t quite go all the way with it.
Not surprising – when you’ve spent your career running away from the battle, the slogans of class war are only ever going to die on your lips. Witness Kezia’s old boss and co-thinker Jim Murphy’s widely derided transition from Blairite spiv to warmed-over Bevanite earlier this year.
With her attacks on the “new establishment” and leftish trimmings, Kezia seems to be trying to pry class consciousness away from concepts of national identity.
Again, fine. It’s perfectly acceptable to say that workers and bosses have completely different interests (that IS the class struggle, afterall). It’s also fine to play the class v nation card. But it’s only fine to do so if you mean it and you’re clear about meaning it, not if you couch it in nudges, winks and the language of conspiracy.
This is the difference between the chord struck by Corbyn and the heads scratched by Kezia.
Into this mix, she threw a bizarre sort-of attack on civil society and charities for not “finding their voice” on poverty and somehow being too close to this “new establishment”. Like the churches haven’t found their voice when they speak out against migrant-hounding in Calais, like the trade unions don’t provide a voice to workers every day.
It’s the voice of charities speaking out against the misery of austerity that the government wants to silence with legislation.
The new Scottish Labour leader seems caught in the bind of trying to find political space which pleases everyone in her party in a landscape which morphs daily.
Not an easy or enviable task – but now might prove to be a time for making friends and building alliances with those you might share some affinity with.
And most of all, it’s surely a time for getting your own house in order first before you criticise or demand more of others.
