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International / news analysis Tony Blair’s ‘Celtic Crisis’ deepens
Mac-talla, May, 2003
The results of the May 1st elections in the United Kingdom deepened the political and constitutional crisis facing the In Northern Ireland, Tony Blair personally suspended elections to the Stormont Parliament on May 3rd, provoking a constitutional crisis. He once again cited the bogeyman of "terrorism" as the pretext for intervention in Ireland. In the Scottish election, Blair directly intervened in a chauvinist and inammatory manner, raising the bogus issue of "devolution" versus "separatism". In what the Guardian termed "a dramatic intervention", Blair went to Glasgow on April 15 to declare a vote for independence would mean "the end of Britain as we know it". The election is "not just another election", he proclaimed. "Indeed, I believe that the election ... is among the most important in Scotland’s history." Inded. The "importance" shows that the Scottish, Welsh and British people are not behind Blairism. It also shows their disillusionment with the first-past-the-post, party-dominated system of government called representative democracy. The headline of this election is"a plague on all your houses", John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, told the BBC. "In truth, there is a clear warning here to Scotland’s mainstream politicians that voters are not sure they are worth voting for." Within England, Labour lost 839 seats in country-wide voting for local councils including, for the first time since 1983, Birmingham and, for the first time in 25 years, Coventry — along with a raft of 23 other councils. In Scotland and Wales — as in 1999 — the people again denied Labour an overall majority. In Scotland turnout was only 49 per cent, adecline of 9 per cent from 1999 when the Scottish Parliament was formed. Labour got 50 seats, the Scottish National Party (SSP) 24, the Liberal Democrats 16, the Tories 16, the Greens seven, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) five and independents four. The "winners" were "small parties": the Greens with six gains and the Scottish Socialists with four, despite a virtual media boycott. Even some pensioners, who formed their own party, received a list seat. Retired GP Jean Turner, campaigning on a platformof saving Stobhill hospital, won a seat from Labour. The SNP lost eight seats. A poll for the Mail on Sunday showed that Tommy Sheridan of the SSP was regarded as the most impressive leader in Scotland. He was rated top of the poll by 23 per cent, compared to 12 per cent for the Tories’ David McLetchie, 11 per cent for Labour First Minister Jack McConnell, and just 8 per cent for John Swinney (SNP). The so-called "Baghdad bounce" — the swing back to Labour among working class voters in the wake of the military victory over Iraq — materialized only in the overheated imagination of the British press. Detailed research for the Glasgow Sunday Herald showed that, of those switching their votes because of the war, 59 per cent were backing one of the four parties seen as anti-war, with just 34 per cent backing the pro-war parties. The vote furthermore repudiates Tony Blair’s program to "Make Britain Great" again, i.e, to restore British imperialism to the kind of status it had in a bygone era in which "Britannia ruled the waves," only now seeking a similar status in global markets through neo-liberalism, war and occupation. In Wales the voter turnout was just 38 per cent. Labour will govern in a coalition with a "mandate" from just 19 per cent of the electorate. Labour won 30 out of 60 seats, two with majorities of less than 72 votes. Plaid Cymru won 12 seats — down five on the last assembly, the Tories won 11 seats, the Liberal Democrats took six seats, the same as last time, with one independent. The results show that Labour is unable to have its own way in manipulating the national aspirations of the Scottish and Welsh people to its advantage. Nor has it again been able to use its divisive propaganda about the "break-up of the uk" to enable it to gain a majority, where it can push through unopposed its imperial concept on "devolution" as a regional layer of government — a new arrangement brought about by the British state. Devolution was its response to the demands of the Scottish, Welsh and Irish people for national and economic sovereignty. Thus the Act setting up the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly decreed that constitutional questions, macro-economics, social security, national security, and foreign policy were "reserved" to London. The Scottish Parliament won taxation powers but, in Wales, Westminster retained all the levers of power: the national question was reduced to a question of language by making the status of Welsh language equal to English.
In Britain’s last election (7 June 2001), New Labour received 41.9 per cent of the votes cast or 24 per cent of the eligible vote. Less than 60 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots, the lowest turnout since 1918 and down more than 10 per cent from the 1997 general election. The Tories only received 32.6 per cent of the vote, the Liberal Democrats 18.8 per cent and other parties and independents 6.7 per cent of the vote. –Tony Seed
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