On the eve of the Labour ballot closing on who will be the party’s next leader in Scotland there’s a salient question to be asked. That is – what do our political parties stand for? Because as we sit on the edge of recession, Britons need to know, quite literally, on which side their bread is buttered. The answer to this has never been so relevant in Scotland; the constitutional question has begun its whiteknuckle ride, gaining momentum as the SNP Government is perceived to be doing a good job. This, in the face of no opposition on the domestic front and an increasingly erratic spin from Westminster. Add to this the prospect of what could be an English-only recession – the Bank of Scotland is predicting Scotland will be sheltered from much of the economic storm - then there is a potent mix that adds credibility to the idea of independence by stealth. Now is the time for the other parties to grasp the nettle and offer a strong alternative to separation otherwise Alex Salmond will succeed not by virtue of his skill at winning Scots around to the detail of independence – he’s not – but simply because no one else is putting up a fight. And he will capitalise on the fact that during times of economic strife, identity is the one common denominator that people who are feeling cast adrift, cling to. So what do they 
all stand for? Clearly the SNP believes in independence; that’s what fuels its being, but round the ages of that passion, it embraces a motley collection of views and beliefs that encompass everything from the far right to the far left. Some of the more hysterical elements were kept under wraps while Team Salmond established itself as a credible, reasonable and measured government. It has a tangible USP - independence. The shorthand being; it stands up for Scotland. It has identity. So, what does Labour stand for? To quote Bridget Jones in 1997, ‘it is perfectly obvious that Labour stands for sharing, kindness, gays, single mothers and Nelson Mandela as opposed to braying 
bossy men having affairs with everyone shag, shag, shag, left right and centre and going to the Ritz in Paris then telling all the presenters off on the Today programme.’ Ah, yes, in the golden, olden days it was all so easy. But if Labour stands up for fairness, so too does the new shiny, cuddly Tory party and the Lib Dems. It’s all up for grabs. But as the party in power, Labour has more to lose. Labour gave a pledge to eradicate poverty. It hasn’t. It promised to rid politics of spin and sleaze. It hasn’t. This is a party that gave Scotland devolution and thought that would be it. It isn’t. So what does Labour stand for now and how does it recapture its common purpose? Certainly in Scotland, it needs to reconnect with the left and accept its Scottish nationality and see that those two things are not mutually exclusive. The party nationally needs to support and respect the Scottish Parliament that it helped establish instead of disregarding it as a slightly elevated council chamber and then using the MSPs as some kind of unofficial pool of second-rate talent that can be dipped into every time a by-election comes along. Having removed its blinkers, it needs to take ownership of the constitutional debate and lead on Scotland’s future. Offer some strong, viable reasons why independence wouldn’t work rather than the lame excuse that we are better off in the Union. They need to seriously question that mantra and then offer an alternative with a Scottish Labour Party prepared to stand up to Westminster, particularly when it matters, over issues of cash like the Free Personal Care allowances. Then it could propose a devolved Scotland with increased powers and control of its own purse strings all within the Union. No one should need to tell Labour that it needs a political renaissance. Glasgow East should have hammered that home hard yet we have witnessed a lacklustre leadership campaign which has focused on fighting the SNP rather than on the good fight. So what of the Lib Dems? Lib Dems need to reinvent themselves as the official coalition partner. The new leader should exploit the advantage afforded by minority administration and get into bed with the man he now calls Alex. There’s not a cigarette paper to be held between many of the Lib Dem policies and that of the SNP, so maybe this is the time for Tavish Scott to manoeuvre his party into being an influential government ally and the party that can offer a third way, dictated by increased federalism, which falls short of independence, but satisfies that growing hunger for a quasi autonomous Scotland. And the Tories? Well, who would have believed that a party so identified with the Union could possibly lie down with the party of independence? Maybe pigs do fly and anything is possible…

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