Proof that Labour in Scotland will have to move to the left to win back SNP voters

This adds a bit more to the debate about which way the Labour party should go to win support in Scotland. The radical tradition of ‘Red Clydeside’ is alive and well north of the border, and it does resent the way the party’s policies are determined by the Islington clique down south, as shown in the recent change of leader. Some other, supporting evidence, for the view that the Scots Labour party will have to move further left to challenge the SNP comes from an interview the Scots SF authors China Mieville and the author of the ‘Culture’ novels gave to one of the SF magazines a few years ago. Neither of the two actually wanted an independent Scotland, but at least one of them had voted SNP as it was more left-wing than the Labour party.

Pride's Purge

(not satire)

There’s some pretty convincing statistical evidence in this study by Professor Phil Cowley at the British Election Study that Labour in Scotland will have to move quite a bit to the left if they want to win back SNP voters before next May’s general election.

Here’s Professor Phil Cowley’s key paragraph:

Labour voters in Scotland see themselves as left-wing and think they support a left-wing party and they see the SNP as noticeably to their right. SNP voters see the world differently: they see themselves as almost equally left-wing but they think they support a left-wing party, and see Labour as even further to their right.

According to the BES study, SNP voters rate themselves as 3.6 on the scale, their party as 3.8 and the Labour opposition as off to the right on 5.3:

That would suggest that if Labour in Scotland want to win back SNP voters, they will need to…

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