In an eve of conference interview with The Herald, Mr Corbyn was asked if, by his declaration, he had not made Labour’s policy review redundant because, if the party leader announced he would not push the nuclear button, then, even if the party supported Trident’s retention and replacement, the deterrent to our enemies would cease to exist.
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“The SNP’s position on Trident is crystal-clear – we oppose nuclear weapons and we will not support spending £167 billion on a new generation of weapons of mass destruction to be based in Scotland”.
“Under Kezia’s leadership Scottish Labour is on the road to recovery, and establishing their own identifiable brand is an important part of that journey”.
“In a few weeks, just before Christmas, families will find letters on their doormats telling them how much they are going to lose”, Dugdale will say.
Changes in the Scotland Bill will mean that from April 2017 Holyrood will be have power over income tax rates and bands, new powers to top up benefits and responsibility for APD. We don’t need to tax ordinary Scots more to make this change.
“That’s what people the length and breadth of the country want to see”.
Ironically, the clearest sign of a divergence and a separate political identity for Scottish Labour may come in the form of an anti-Trident renewal position, an outcome Dugdale is unlikely to welcome.
“We just need to make different choices from the Tories and the SNP”.
Pressed further, Mr Jones said there were “many possibilities” and added: “The key is to improve effectiveness as a campaigning and policy development organisation”.
“The SNP have said they would cut the tax paid on airline tickets, a policy which will eventually cost £250 million a year”. Not least the airport operators, but I say this: A tax cut for those who can already afford to shop for airline tickets cannot be Scotland’s priority when families cannot afford the weekly shop.
And she will claim that a reversal of the tax credit cuts planned by Chancellor George Osborne – which suffered a major setback in the House of Lords this week – could be achieved without raising new taxes. The party also lost all but one of its Scottish MPs in the general election as nationalists secured a landslide victory. “I want them to have access to the same opportunities as any other young person in Scotland”. I hope they can see the difference now: a Labour government introduced tax credits, a Tory government cut them.
Scottish Labour’s structural change, in contrast, is more of a break with the past.
“They are important, of course, but the most important focus of Scottish Labour will be on using the powers at Holyrood to transform the lives of people in Scotland”.
Quoting Keir Hardie, the first ever Labour MP, Corbyn said Scottish Labour should embrace the “sunshine of socialism”.
However, concerns have been raised in the media that such a move could mean conflicting views between Scottish Labour and UK Labour, on big issues such as defence and taxation, in the lead up to the 2020 General Election.
“Yet these words have proved to be nothing more than hollow words and empty promises”.
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With the conference to debate the controversial issue of Trident – something Labour’s United Kingdom conference did not do – the veteran left-winger urged party members to decide what position to take “for the good of Scotland”.
