In a sign of laziness, I mean...err... opening up debate on this blog, I have another guest post this time by Dean the Tory from the recently discovered, and rather excellent, New Right blog. I asked Dean to blog on whatever he wished so below is his post which is a mixture of a rebutal of Yousuf's recent guest post as well as a wonderful commentary on Conservatism in Scotland.
Enjoy,
ScottishToryBoy
Guest post: Dean the Tory from New Right
In his post [13th October] Yousif Hamid concluded that “The debate on prevailing ideology [of Scottish politics] is far more complex than first seems”. It is my intention to refute this, but go further and explain that due to an inherent leftwing bias in Scottish society the modern Scottish Conservatives must revert back to ‘old hat’ One Nationism.
Rose tinted lenses
What first strikes a reader of Hamids’ guest article is the sheer volume of historical generalisations Hamid seems content to peddle.
The rose tinted vision of yesterdays Tories is an apt point in being. Hamid initially correctly observes Labour haven’t always dominated Scotland; “it is worth remembering that Scotland has not been Labour since the dawn of time”. Yet by pointing to the 50.1% Tory domination in the 1950’s as evidence of a right-wing Scotland is rose tinted history.
Yes Labour never always dominated Scotland, yes the Tories once did- but this doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. As the 1950’s Tory electoral coalition was all-encompassing and overwhelmingly ‘left wing’ [i.e. patrician class] in character. This 1950’s Tory Scotland was reliant upon a loose political coalition of ‘Liberal Unionists’, ‘National Liberals’ and finally ‘Unionist’ MPs. These MPs elected as part of Scottish Toryism derived from the patrician class of consensus politicians. They valued consensus, they read Disraeli’s Sybil- in modern speak they were ‘wets’.
Their political heirs became among the most enthusiastic Heathites in the 1970’s, so Hamids’ interpretation of a Tory Scotland therefore equating to a right-wing Scotland is false. Scotland has never elected espousers of right-wing [thatcherite] values.
Thatcherism without Thatcher?
Hamids’ rose tinted theology does continue, evolving to the point where he speculates that perhaps Scots “wanted “Thatcherism”, but not Thatcher”. This strange argument moves forward towards somehow hinting at a secret Scottish rightism. It seems Yousif Hamid has read works of Quintin Hogg; who once wrote “Scotland is a Conservative society with radical pretensions”.
I however once again hold that Hamid is either deliberately or accidentally conflating or speculating over Scottish political history. Take a look for example at Sir Malcolm Rifkind, he is on record as saying the fault with 1980’s Toryism was that it “avoided selling Thatcherism to the Scots, rather Scottish Tories positioned themselves as the protectors of Scots; keeping back the worst excesses”.
How then does this square with Hamids’ romanticism? I’d like to highlight that a high level of uptake on right-to-buy doesn’t prove a popular outpouring for ideological Thatcherism. Especially if Rifkind is to be believed. Did Scots approve of her monetarism? No, and when Heath tried to implement it before Maggie he presided over the largest exodus of grass-roots Tory members in history. What about the privatisations? Of course not. Indeed the Scottish attitude to centre-right politics like Thatcherite economic liberalism, and centre-right economic monetarism was best demonstrated in the Scots reaction to the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ speech. I’d suggest to Hamid that that Scots reaction displays the real character of Scots towards rightist economic politics, not right to buy.
Tory Democracy
The future for contemporary Scottish Tories like me therefore could be construed as bleak. And let me tell you it shall be if we continue to perpetuate the historical belief that Scots are somehow secretly Thatcherites, or somehow actually really agreed with the right-wing politics of the 1980’s.
If any future is to exist for Scottish Conservatism is to exist we must look back to the successes of One Nationism. As Dr Thorpe wrote in the Daily Telegraph the day before Camerons’ conference address, “Cameron should model himself on Supermac”. May I stretch this slightly and suggest “The Scottish Conservatives should model ourselves on Supermac”?
The means to achieve this leftward shift in our own party back to the values of 1950’s Toryism must involve the revocation of the 1965 merger, and the ending of the 1977 reforms. In short Scottish Conservatives must take back control over their own future. We are a party in a country inherently left wing, and we are the heirs of a consevativism which was itself only ever reflective of this society in which we live when we accepted this.
I call thus for a return to One Nationist values, and an end with our affiliation to the corrupted and dead Thatcherite legacy.
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