What does Scottish Labour stand for?

North of the border, the long-anticipated by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West has finally been confirmed. This constituency is classic SNP-Labour swing territory, and though an SNP-held seat until recently, polls have shown that Labour support in Scotland is on the rise. The by-election will put these predictions to the test: can Labour’s candidate Michael Shanks not just win, but win well and capture the mood for change? Possibly, but for this to happen, Labour needs to present Scottish voters with a better vision — instead of continuing to rely on SNP failures.

We can be assured that the longstanding SNP-Labour rivalry will come out in full force as the by-election date nears. The same tactics have all been used before. For years, the Labour party used to invoke the SNP’s role in bringing down Jim Callaghan’s Labour government in 1979, while another Labour mantra is to talk about ‘Scotland’s two failing governments’ — hereby establishing an equivalence between the UK Tories and SNP in charge in Scotland.