UK Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer No Friend of the Celtic People

UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer is no friend of the Celtic people as again demonstrated by his speech to the Labour Party Conference last week. He continues to dig himself deeper into a hole by opposing Scottish independence or a referendum by the people of Scotland on the issue. The present lackluster British Labour Party leader screamed from the rostrum: "Labour is the party of the Union" when giving his keynote speech. This is the same Keir Starmer, who on a visit to the north of Ireland in the summer stated that he has ruled out the prospect of a united Ireland in the foreseeable future, saying that such an eventuality is “not in sight”.

This is the type of attitude prevalent in the British Labour Party. They have sought to block Scottish independence at every turn or even the democratic right of the Scottish people to determine their own future. Is it any wonder that the Labour vote in Scotland has seen a rapid decline over the years. In the 2015 British general election. Scottish Labour were left with a sole seat in the House of Commons (Westminster) and lost 40 of its 41 seats to the Scottish National Party. In the last UK General Election in 2019 Labour again only held on to 1 of 59 Scottish seats. Whilst the Scottish National Party (SNP) received the most votes (45%, up 8.1% from the previous election) and won 48. Labour's vote share was its lowest at a Westminster election in Scotland since December 1910. SNP gains came at the expense of both unionist parties of Labour and the Conservatives. The Conservatists remained the largest unionist party in Scotland even though they lost more than half of their Scottish seats compared to 2017.

The situation for Labour continued to decline in the election for the Scottish Parliament in May 2021. The election concluded with the SNP winning a fourth consecutive term in government. Meanwhile Labour’s vote continued to shrink and they had their worst-ever result. There is no sign of recovery in their position. In September 2021 an opinion poll from Opinium saw Labour's popularity in Scotland suffer a further fall with Scottish Parliament constituency voting intentions at 18% of those surveyed (down four points), Westminster voting intentions at 17% (down three points). Undeterred, Keir Starmer continues to ignore the aspirations of the Scottish people. He appears to be in a competition with British conservative leader and Prime Minister Boris Johnson on who can display the most contempt for Scotland and the most support for British unionism. British unionism being the continued dominance of England over other nations within the so-called United Kingdom (UK). The underlying position of Keir Starmer appears to be a desire to reduce the Celtic nations within the UK to regional status.

Just to add insult to injury, in last week's Labour Party conference, Keir Starmer laid out his big idea for Britain in the future - a return to Blairism. The best he can do is hitch his wagon to the former Labour British prime minister Tony Blair. Someone who remains very unpopular with the British electorate. A man that many accuse of having blood on his hands for the deaths of civilians and service personnel during and after the Iraq War. If any politician is responsible for voters concluding that no politician can ever be trusted again, it is “toxic” Tony Blair and the unsavoury band of politicians and ‘advisors’ that surrounded him. It is reported that the Blairs have amassed a multimillion-pound portfolio of properties since leaving Downing Street in 2007. The revelations on Blair’s financial dealings continue with information from the recent ‘Pandora Papers'. They are part of an investigation by a consortium of over 600 journalists from a number of global media outlets. The resulting leak of almost 12 million documents reveals hidden wealth, tax avoidance and other unsavoury financial practices by some of the world's rich and powerful.  The leaked documents showed that Tony and Cherie Blair did not have to pay £312,000 in stamp duty when buying a £6.45m London townhouse.

This is the politician it seems that present British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer aspires to emulate. A sort of down market version of Tony Blair, who it has to be said was part of a project that managed to fool many people for a number of years during his time in office. It is unlikely, however, that Keir Starmer will ever be in that position. He is distrusted so much already that he probably will never get into office. The future for Scotland cannot be just between ‘the devil and the deep blue sea’ offered by the two British unionist parties of Labour and Conservative, but needs to be as a sovereign independent state.

Image above: Keir Starmer 'Humpy Dumpty sat on a wall'.

Image below: Depiction of Tony Blair during demonstration. Many blame him for deaths of civilians and service personnel during and after the Iraq War and image courtesy of Reuters.