This is an age of anti-incumbency. Yet the scale of Labour’s emerging unpopularity is striking.
There is a battle of ideas underway about the nature of society, economy, capitalism and the future. The present Labour leadership are silent on many of these big issues. So are the SNP. Yet this wider battle about those ideas entails recognising the need to defeat the virulent right.
This cannot involve clinging to mantras of stability and yearning to return to normalcy while remaining wed to the broken economic orthodoxies which have caused such chaos, ripped up the social contract across the West, and seen the climate crisis set the planet on fire.
This means recognising that Labour are not the same as Tories, but the small “c” conservatism of Labour, SNP, Lib Dems and Greens is an open invitation for the right to continue its assault. Centrist managerialism, caving in to corporate capture of the public realm and dead rhetoric are the equivalent of waving the flag of surrender.
Appeasement does not work – whether it is to dictators or to the forces of reaction. Instead, there is a pressing need to call-out and break with the right-wing ideas which have caused such havoc in recent decades – and begin to map out a different direction. This is not just about defending democracy, public services and what is left of the welfare state but articulating the values we want to live by and starting to put them into action.
That would be a challenge to the right and its pessimistic view of human nature, but also the miniaturised ambition of the political class in the UK and Scotland. This is a battle for our future, for humanity, humane values and for the sustainability of the planet and it one that we must win.